


Train of Infinite

by Tziput13



Category: Gravity Falls, Infinity Train (Cartoon)
Genre: Adventure, Crossover, Friendship, Gen, Mystery, Pre-Weirdmageddon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2018-12-22 14:11:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11969061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tziput13/pseuds/Tziput13
Summary: Tired of the progress made by the Pines twins, Bill decides to put them through the ultimate test. One of quite theinfiniteproportions.





	1. New Passengers

**Author's Note:**

> This crossover fanfiction is based on the pilot episode of Infinity Train. Keep this in mind, especially if you're a future reader and the show got greenlit (past self: let's hope it does!) since if that happens this story is likely to become an AU not only for the crossover itself but also for the possible differences between the new series and the Infinity Train aspects of this fic.

_Bill was starting to get a bit fed up._

_He might have been an interdimensional dream demon who'd lived for thousands of centuries, but that didn't mean he had learned about the concept of patience. And that definitely wasn't true now, as he watched the specific pair of kids who made progress day after day, getting nearer to answers… and possibly nearer to messing his plans up._

_He had waited for so long… and seeing Pine Tree and Shooting Star so close to make a little discovery about their great uncle was worrying… and annoying._

_Yet, Bill couldn't really blame them. He was very, very impressed by the twins, and no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't argue that they were particularly skilled. Together they had lived through peril that would have left the most powerful of the mortals as a crying mess on the ground… which, infuriatingly, included being able to fight him back. Twice._

_Not that it would have saved them in the end._

_But alas, Bill's patience had run thin. The Pines needed to understand that there was no stopping him, and they needed a little lesson… possibly one that would terrorize them for the rest of their lives._

_And, from his personal dwelling, Bill had recently found a place that was just perfect for what he had in mind._

* * *

"Gah!" Tulip hastily closed the door behind her and coughed, trying to fill her lungs again with fresh air. "Really? Skunks?!"

"Adorable, weren't they?" One-One replied with his usual happy demeanour, only to follow with a low, "The smell of a natural defence is nothing compared to the filth that is life."

Tulip ignored both halves of his robot companion. "I swear, this train is making fun of me. I could solve whatever iper-complex math equation you could throw at me, but no! We have to literally enrage a dominion of talking skunks!"

"At least it wasn't a fart car, Miss Tulip," Glad-One tried to cheer her up. "Besides, they seemed like fine people!"

"Until you ruined their lives' work…" Sad-One added.

"I don't need you two to remember me… ugh!" Tulip groaned. "I didn't like doing it, all right? It was just… we need to go forward, no matter what... We need to find a way  _home."_

"Then, off to the next car we go!" Glad-One chirped.

"We are yet to encounter the burp car… maybe this one will be it," Sad-One muttered.

Tulip would really have liked to tell her two weird companions how much she  _didn't_ like their observations, but she didn't reply. As much as she found them annoying at times, Tulip knew that One-One had been his only company during their trek inside the train. They were always willing to help her and followed her without question, ever since she had first met them.

On that passenger car. The one where she had woken up in, with only a few memories left.

She shook her head, shooing the thought away from her mind, and walked to the entrance of the next car. "I just hope we won't end up with more talking animals…"

"Corginia wasn't bad, though!" Glad-One replied.

"Until they began rolling us around like footballs…" Sad-One added.

"That was… I don't know how long ago, thirty cars?" Tulip counted mentally. "The fact is, that was the last time we met someone who didn't either want to dispose of us, eat us or throw us out the train!"

"Even I prefer not to remember the eating part…" Sad-One said, shuddering with the entire body of One-One.

"Good. Now, try to keep quiet and let me do the talking… if we can make it through this one  _without_  running for our lives, I'd take that thank you very much!" Tulip said as she unlocked the next door and opened it. "Now, what do you have in store for us, train of…"

The words died in her throat. In front of her there was a very narrow hallway that brought directly to the left side of the car. Strolling, Tulip followed the direction and looked behind the next corner: the hallway stretched through the entire length of the car, reaching the far end where another symmetric corner waited. On the right side of the hallway there were various entrances covered by dusty, green curtains, but there was no mistake: the curtains hid the single compartments of the carriage.

It was a passenger car. One identical to the very first car Tulip remembered.

"Oh! What a surprise! Maybe we'll meet someone like Miss Tulip!" Glad-One said excitedly.

"Or maybe someone who would really like to eat us…" Sad-One grumbled.

"Shut it, you two! Let me think!" Tulip ordered, gaining the silence of the sphere robot. "This… this can't be the same car. It wouldn't make sense! It's been at least week, I don't even recall how many cars we've crossed since then…"

"Well, it isn't exactly the brightest type of train car," Glad-One admitted. "Let's hope whoever staying here is!"

"Not the brightest, you say… dusty and left to itself. That  _is_  different… if there was one car type appearing more than once, it would be this one, indeed," Tulip reasoned. "But wait… if there are more cars like this one… then maybe there are  _really_  more people like me!"

Her eyes fell to her right palm, where the '49' persisted in annoying her with its presence. Although Tulip, since the incident in Corginia, had learned to tolerate it, she had not stopped thinking about the possible meanings behind the two-cipher number… she now had a clue, which was better than nothing, but getting to the bottom of it was another matter.

Especially if that meant dealing with a robotic terror.

But now she had another chance. Passengers cars were there to carry passengers… even in a strange train as this one. Overexcited, Tulip forgot every stealth rule and rushed to the first compartment much to the dismay of One-One, who fell from her backpack and rolled away. Tulip quickly grabbed the curtains and moved them side-wards, to reveal the occupants of the seats.

But there were none.

Tulip's happy mouth slowly faded away as her eyes checked for evidence of human activity. The seats were, however, covered by dust, a signal of the exact opposite, and the same could be said for the curtains covering the window of the compartment. There were no objects out of the ordinary, no variations in its dull appearance… nothing. No one had ever been there, and if they did that was long time ago.

Tulip's eyes closed and she frowned. She let herself fall on the nearest seat and there she remained, even as she heard One-One calling for her. "Miss Tulip?"

The little robot came in, or to be precise the two components did separately. "Miss Tulip, are you okay?" Glad-One repeated.

"That's a rhetorical answer…" Sad-One commented.

"Won't stop me from asking!" Glad-One retorted without a hint of hindrance in his voice.

"No, you're right. I'm not okay… I just need a moment…" Tulip explained. The two halves slowly trudged to her leg and struggled to climb up until they were beside her, one per side.

Glad-One and Sad-One remained silent. They simply looked and waited for her to speak, observing the few lone tears that were coming down her cheek.

"I just… I just thought that there could  _actually_ be someone else inside the train who's not linked to a car… one who, just like us, travels through this train… maybe someone with some answers. Huh… I guess I'd have to simply accept the fact I'm alone."

"Loneliness is indeed a possibility, but life is lonely anyway, so does it matter?" Sad-One replied.

"You don't have to worry, Miss Tulip! I'm sure there are more people as amazing as you around the train... and someday, we'll meet one!"

"Ha, thank you One-One… but how long is even the train? I don't know… it's already been a few days of travel and we have not only failed to reach an end… we didn't find a clue about the distance from it… or even about its existence. I might end up not finding anyone even if there  _was_  someone _…_ "

"Congratulations, you've made me even more gloomy," Sad-One commented. The quip had the effect to steal a chuckle from the red-haired girl.

"Heh, that's not easy. They should give you a medal for doing it…" Tulip said while trying to stifle the giggles.

"A giant, gold, shining medal to display for all!" Glad-One exclaimed.

"A medal depicting the overall futility of our struggles…" Sad-One said.

Tulip chuckled again. The way the sentences of the two drones conflicted and complemented with each other was annoying sometimes… but the other times it was comedy gold. Yes, maybe she was alone as a human… but she had One-One.

"You have a point. I have you, and I'm glad I do," she said, putting her hands on both parts of One-One. "We'll get through this even if it's only us travelling inside this stupid train!"

" _ **NOOO!"**_

Tulip stood up in complete shock and surprise, reacting on instinct as she looked around for the source of the  _scream._

"We're all gonna die," Sad-One muttered.

"Not now, One-One! Hush…" Tulip commanded. She remained immobile, standing in the compartment, and so did Sad-One and Glad-One. There they waited for a few seconds before they heard noises. Movements.

"There's someone in the compartment next to ours…" Tulip whispered.

"Let's go meet them!" Glad-One immediately said, but Tulip grabbed him before he could move. "No, you won't. This time we're doing it  _my way,_ One-One. You will stay in my backpack and you will wait there until I say otherwise."

"Enclosed in the total darkness of a simple rucksack… how fitting," Sad-One commented. Yet, Glad-One had the guts to find something happy even in this situation, "We're gonna make them such a surprise! Great idea Miss Tulip!"

Tulip sighed. "Just get in," she cut short. After One-One was hidden behind her, Tulip focused on the task at hand and took a peek of the connecting corridor of the car.

 _No tentacle monstrosity in sight… well, that's a bonus,_ she thought. Quietly, Tulip moved out and began walking towards the next compartment. Like the previous, this one was hidden by a green curtain, but there was a difference… namely, the noises coming from inside.

There was something moving over the seats… but it didn't seem like it,  _or they,_  were big giant beasts of sorts. Deciphering the noises was hard, and Tulip knew there was only one way to find out what was going on.  _Ugh. Here goes nothing…_

The curtain was split in two parts which crossed each other in the centre, right where the entrance was. Tulip oh so slowly put a finger behind the left curtain and, centimetre after centimetre, she moved the thing out of the way, until a little fissure was made through. Carefully, Tulip approached the curtains with her eyes and, finally, she looked through the opening at what was inside the compartment.

It was pretty much identical to the previous one…  _if we excluded_   _the two kids lying on the seats._

Tulip tried her best to remain calm. Hey eyes weren't deceiving her: there were two kids there. They lay opposite of each other, on the two different seat rows, and for all she knew, they were peacefully sleeping with no thought for the outer world.

…maybe not  _that_ peacefully, now that she thought about it.

At Tulip's left, there was a girl. She was curled into a foetal position, which thanks to her long hair and the oversized sweater she was wearing gave the impression she had formed a perfect ball. Her face was the epitome of fear and it was clear that she was shivering… and Tulip was pretty sure it was far from being cold there.

On the right side of the compartment there was, on the other hand, a boy. Much differently from the girl, he was fidgeting all around the seats, rubbing his limbs on the fabric and thus generating the noise Tulip and One-One had heard before. The redhead could even hear him talk in his sleep, but his whispers were too low for her to hear.

That was, if she didn't enter the compartment.

"What is it? What is it?" came the voice from her backpack. In alarm, Tulip turned away from the curtain and hastily removed One-One from his hiding place. "One-One, I said quiet!"

"There is silence only in the vastness of death," Sad-One said.

"Wrong answer! Why would you even… ugh, forget about it. Listen closely," Tulip requested. "Don't ask me why because I have no clue, but there are two kids in this compartment. They're sleeping… having nightmares, I think,"

"The dreamworld is often the source of our worst fears," Sad-One remarked.

"Two kids! Oh my, I wanna see!" Glad-One was trying his best to escape Tulip's grasp.

"Calm down! I'm going to let you see them for yourself, but you must be silent. They…" she moved her eyes towards the curtain for a moment. "They look frightened. We don't want to startle them out of their sleep."

"So, you're going to wake them up?" Sad-One asked.

"Uh, yeah, duh? What's wrong with that?"

"There are a lot of reasons why those children might be here… and not all of them may condone an awakening of them," the bot continued. Whether Glad-One was listening or not remained unknown since there was no quick quip from his voice. Sad-One was in control now.

"What… what do you mean? Of course I'm going to wake them up, it's not like…" and then, Tulip remembered.

_RETURN TO YOUR SEAT._

"…oh."

One-One had a point. She wasn't just endangering herself this way… she was probably doing the same for that pair of strangers waiting beyond the curtains.

Yet, there were other reasons for her decisions, reasons Sad-One did not talk about.

"One-One, those kids are not  _okay._ It doesn't matter whether we're all going to get in trouble afterwards… we cannot leave them in their state. Now,  _that_ wouldn't be okay."

She looked at her right hand and inspected the bright '49'.  _And maybe… maybe they'll have a way to help me out…_

"Yaas!" Glad-One suddenly cried. "Let's go help the-" Tulip hand reached out and blocked his 'mouth', or rather his speakers. "One-One. _Hush."_

Tulip stood up, letting the bot free, and she carefully moved the curtains away. One-One was visibly excited but a glare from the redhead made him keep the silence. Tulip tiptoed into the chamber, observing the two kids, still in their lying positions. The tremble of their bodies was clear.

 _Whatever they're dreaming about, it must not be pleasant,_ Tulip thought. She suddenly noticed she had stepped on something and picked up the object: a white cap with blue details, including a tree on the forehead. She tried to link the image to something from her memory, but nothing came out of it.

 _Tree… where do you two come from?_ she thought. Tulip looked for a moment outside, beyond the uncovered window of the compartment, to see the borderless desert that the train was moving through.  _Likely not from around here._

One-One had already climbed on the right-side seats and was currently looking at the face of the sleeping girl. Tulip decided to do the same with the other kid, sitting beside him and momentarily placing the hat on the armrest.

Now that Tulip was near him, the girl was able to listen to whatever he was muttering in his slumber. But the words that came out of the kids' mouth didn't make sense to her.

"No… leave her be… Bill… Mabel… don't trust… you cannot… Mabel…"

 _Mabel?_ Tulip mentally made the possible connection with the girl. One-One was carefully inspecting her sweater at the moment.  _They're both freaked out… we better put an end to this now._

She made a gesture to One-One, who raised a robotic limp as a nod, then Tulip sighed and proceeded to lightly grab the boy's shoulders.

No reaction.

"Hey…" Tulip timidly started. "Hey. Wake up."

"You won't get away with this… Bill…"

 _This Bill guy must not be the best person they've ever met, I guess._ "There's no Bill here. Wake up!" Tulip added a little shake to the kid's shoulders.

Yet, his eyes remained closed. Tulip rolled her eyes and decided to go with a slightly harder route: she shook him a little more energetically, then she said with her normal voice, "C'mon, rise and shine!"

Finally, there was an effect. The kids' eyes flinched, and his eyelids opened for a second.

"There," Tulip reassured, letting him away. The kid's eyes were still half-closed, but they were looking at her. She was sure she had managed to get him out of his nap quietly.

That was, until the boy suddenly jumped like a spring, screaming at the top of his lungs. Both One-One and Tulip cried in surprise, with the first rolling away from his position and the latter standing up and away from the kid, who agitated his fists towards the redhead.

"Stay back!"

"Calm down, I'm not your enemy!"

"I said STAY BACK!"

"Do you even listen?! I won't hurt you!"

"No, I'm not falling for this Bill! Do you hear me?! I know you're here!" the boy shouted, looking around frantically. "I won't fall for your nerdy version of Wendy, Bill!"

"I have no idea what you're talking – wait, nerdy version of who?" Tulip wasn't sure whether feeling insulted or confused.

"I don't know what you're up to, but we won't simply play your games!" the boy continued to ramble on, seemingly threatening Tulip with his fists.  _Sheesh, has he lost it?_

Before Tulip could try once again to reason with the nervous boy, One-One interjected. "Uhh, excuse me…" Glad-One said.

Both Tulip and the boy looked at him. He had somehow managed to climb back over the seats during the commotion… and right now he was standing right beside the girl.

Tulip immediately noticed that the girl had somehow reduced the space she was occupying even more. Her muscles were tensed and she could even see her slightly chubby cheeks were wet from crying.  _She didn't like our show…_ Tulip thought matter-of-factly.

She was distracted by the boy's sudden cry of alarm.  _"Mabel!"_

He literally threw himself towards the lying girl and grabbed her. "Mabel! MABEL! Come on, Mabel, wake up! I'm here! It's Dipper!" It seemed he had completely forgotten about the existence of One-One and Tulip.

Tulip scowled when she saw his frantic attempts at waking the sleeping girl up. "I'm sorry, but I don't think you know what you're-"

The head of the boy that was probably named Dipper turned towards her with a dry twitch. "What did you  _do_  to her?"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Tulip was starting to get sick of all the random accuses. "I found you both here already sleeping, I did nothing more than-!"

"What did you DO TO HER?!" the boy demanded again. The desperation in his voice hit Tulip, to the point that she suddenly found herself without words. One-One had retreated away from the pair of kids and he seemed to be scared as well, which is saying something since he normally wanted to wave at living horrors like it was nothing.

Before the boy could restate his question, though, a flail voice was added to the mix. "Dipper…"

Tulip and One-One disappeared once again from the boy's thoughts. "Mabel?"

"I'm okay, Dipper. Calm down…"

"Okay-okay?"

"Okay-okay," the girl confirmed. Dipper finally let her away from his grasp and sighed in relief. "Oh, man… oh man. I need a break."

The girl sat up, side by side with the boy. "Me too. I… I don't know, Dipper. Do you remember?"

"Bill?"

The girl nodded.

"Yeah. Hard to forget someone like him… ugh. Whatever he's done this time, I didn't like it. It was like going through the bottomless  _heck_ instead of the bottomless pit."

"Huh-uh. It was… horrible. With all the screaming, and fire, and what? And I didn't see you anymore, I thought you were a goner…"

"Hey, don't worry. That's no more our concern… we're here, we're together, and Bill's not around," the boy said, making sure to look at her right in the eyes.

"Not yet. What if he shows up again?"

"Then we'll fight back. Bill got us by surprise, Mabel, and separated us to do whatever he wanted before we could react, but this won't happen again. We're  _both_ in this, got it?"

The girl pondered over his words for a few moments, before smiling. "Got it. Just a question, though…  _where are we?"_

Dipper and Mabel looked around the train compartment… and their eyes fell on Tulip, who had simply witnessed to their conversation without interrupting. They immediately tensed up, unsure what to think about her and the weird sphere robot who was looking at them as well.

"Well…  _Mabel,"_ Tulip finally said. "You've just asked the million-dollar question."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll just say I've recently finished watching Gravity Falls and holy cow, what a wild ride. By chance I have coincidentally been infected (again) with the hype for the potential of Infinity Train, so… this is the result. Hope you liked it!


	2. Trip Buddies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to add this note to the previous chapter: this story takes place before the Gravity Falls episode 'Not What He Seems', if you didn't guess already. However, I may make 'references' to later episodes' reveals in future chapters, so just in case: **beware of spoilers.**

"So… let me get this straight… we're on a train of unclear length."

"Yep."

"A train which you've been travelling through for at least a week, solving puzzles to unlock the way for the next car."

"Huh-huh."

"And you have no idea why you're here, where the train is moving through or whatever its destination is."

"Couldn't have said it better."

Dipper slumped on his seat, suddenly feeling extremely tired. "Oh boy… This is bad."

"Dipper?" Mabel called. She had listened to the girl's explanation, but despite the general creepiness of her tale, she didn't see much to too be worried about concerning the current situation her brother and she were in.

"Mabel… this is Bill's work we're talking about. I fear that he's gotten us into some sort of different plane of reality, mind trick or whatever he did. We're not in Gravity Falls anymore."

He suddenly had an idea, "I remember reading something about the studies in alternative dimensions in the journal. If I could…" he tried to grab something from under his waistcoat, but apparently there was nothing. "Oh, come on!"

"But there is a way back, right? If we got here, we can also go the other way around, no?" Mabel asked.

"I guess… I don't know, Mabel. I do remember being in the attic before  _that_  happened… if Bill got us while we were napping, we might potentially be still there, and if that's so we can hope for someone at the Mystery Shack to wake us up."

* * *

"Dudes, you gotta see this!" Soos exclaimed as he barged into the twins' room while wielding a long pole shining with blue light, only to discover that both were asleep on their beds. He immediately halted his movements.

"Woops, sorry," he whispered to himself as he tiptoed away from the sleeping kids and quietly closed the door.

"I better tell Mr. Pines and Wendy not to disturb them… after yesterday's incident they do deserve some peace! But first… what does this  _thing_  do?"

* * *

"Curse the Gnome Civil War!" Dipper groaned once he recalled of his previous adventure and how it would end up make everyone in the shack let them sleep. "Ugh… I guess that looking for an escape route ourselves might be the best idea right now," he concluded.

"Uhh, hello?" Tulip didn't want to stop the exchange between the two kids, but he needed to know more about their presence here. Currently, she was sitting across of them in the compartment, with One-One right at her side. "I told you what I know, now it's my turn to ask questions!"

"I have so much questions I can't even choose one to begin with!" Glad-One said.

"Who cares about the questions, when the answers might not be as good?" Sad-One commented. Mabel giggled. "I like your robot friend!"

"Hold on, Wen- I mean, whoever you are," Dipper said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "You might have told us more about this… train of yours, but we can't really trust you fully, not yet."

"Trust? What do you mean?"

"For all we know, you might as well be part of a deception created by Bill himself… and I'm not willing to risk it!" Dipper exclaimed. "Fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice…"

Tulip groaned. "I have no idea what you're talking about… I've already told you! Who's even this Bill guy you continue to say the name of? I've never heard of him before in my life!"

"Oh, c'mon Dipper, she's fine," Mabel interjected. "She did wake us up from that horrible nightmare!"

Dipper sighed. "Okay, okay… Now, about Bill, it's better if you know about him, too… he's a dream demon who's been terrorizing us all summer. We've already encountered him twice… both of which I'd rather not recall. The point is, he's a master in tricking people to fall into his traps, and I'm ninety-nine percent sure he's the very reason me and my sister are here. We were relaxing in our bedroom when he showed up out of nowhere, talked about getting us in line and having us deal with the  _infinite side_ of things, and he somewhat got us sucked into some type of bad horror movie we couldn't escape from… then, you woke us up."

Tulip raised an eyebrow… their story wasn't exactly what she'd define as logical. Then, he realized that, apparently, 'Bill' had managed to get these two kids  _into_  the train… maybe…

"What did he  _say?"_  she suddenly demanded, "You said he wanted to get you in line, okay, but what about the infinite  _side?_ What else did he say?"

"I… I'm not sure, I thought it was just him taking delight in making up some dumb riddles…"

"Please!" Tulip suddenly moved forward and grabbed Dipper by his shoulders, "You have to tell me! Did he say something about the cars? About the  _numbers?!"_

Dipper wasn't happy with the girl's reaction. He pushed her away before saying, "Get off me! I told you, I'm not sure. He simply said we'd have to face something about infinity… he didn't talk about trains or train cars, and he didn't refer to some numbers, either. What's with all these questions, anyway?"

Tulip retreated to her seat, suddenly realizing that she had lost control of herself, and brought her hands to her face. "I… Sorry about that. I… I've been looking for an explanation myself, Dipper. I searched for answers for more than I would've wanted. I thought you could, I don't know… help me find a way home."

"You want to get home, too?" Mabel said, saddened by her reaction.

"Yeah. I have been trying to find a way out of this stupid train for days, but everytime I get to another car, it only gets weirder and more nonsensical!"

"A true description of our hopeless quest…" Sad-One remarked.

"…now you're creeping me out," Dipper said.

"But look alive! We did find something to think about, didn't we?" Glad-One happily remarked, rotating his body to look at Tulip.

"…even creepier," Dipper confirmed. Mabel didn't seem to share her brother's opinion since she stood up without notice and moved to One-One's seat. Before the bot could say or do anything, she took grasp of him and started to cuddle him. "Aw, quit it, Dipper! He only needs a little more love for his happy side!"

"…I miss being rolled around by the corgis," Sad-One muttered as he was stroked by Mabel's cheek.

"Well, yeah, One-One, you're right, I found something…" Tulip said. She rotated a little her hand a gave a glimpse to the glowing number, but immediately covered it. She had suddenly realized that she had yet to reveal the strange feature of her palm to Mabel and Dipper… and maybe she didn't need to, not anymore. "I did get my push… but that was days ago. I don't want to sound greedy, but… I just want  _clear_  answers, and I'm losing patience."

Dipper suddenly felt sympathetic for the little girl. He remembered how he had spent the last month at Gravity Falls, inspecting every type of weirdness he could get his hands on and trying to find a reason behind anything that was written in Journal Three. He also remembered how he was excited when he discovered the hidden information in the Journal's pages, revealed only by the UV light, and how much he was eager to know whatever else he had missed. The only difference here was that Tulip had no journal whatsoever to help her around the train.

"Hey, come on, give me a smile!" Mabel suddenly tweeted, "One-One said you  _did_  get something, no reason to think you won't get anything ever again!"

"I know, I know, but-…" her speech was suddenly cut off as Mabel grabbed her cheeks without notice and pulled the skin sideward, until the mouth of the redhead was forced into a smile.

"There, now that's better!" Mabel said, satisfied with her work. She let Tulip go, who immediately massaged her aching skin.

"Is she always like this?" Tulip questioned.

"Welcome to my world…" Dipper said, "but believe me, it's not that bad."

"I hope for you that's true…" Tulip said. She stood up before resuming her speech, "We're all in our own problems, and if we can't help each other anymore, I think it'd be best for us to depart ways. I need to keep going… One-One?"

One-One jumped out of Mabel's arms, much to her dismay, and climbed on top of Tulip's backpack. "And off we go!" he said with his cheerful tone as Tulip picked the rucksack up.

"Wait, wait, wait! Where're you going now!?" Dipper asked, surprised by her sudden desire to leave.

"I'm sorry for your situation and all, but as I said I have my own riddles to solve. I must push forward and get to the next car," Tulip simply answered. One-One waved at the twins just before she disappeared behind the curtain.

"Wasn't that a bit too much haste, Miss Tulip? You didn't even tell them what your name is," Glad-One asked with sincere curiosity.

"I might as well write their obituary," Sad-One muttered.

"No, no. I know it wasn't the best way to take my leave, but I have to move forward and you both know it," Tulip explained. "They'll be fine."

"Wait!"

Tulip groaned and whirled around to see Dipper and Mabel looking at her from the corridor, leaning through the curtains. "Can't you give us a clue or something about where to go? Anything more?" the boy said nervously.

"I told you, I'm looking for where to go  _myself!"_  Tulip said in annoyance.

"Then maybe we can go with you!" Mabel proposed.

"What? No, no, no, slow down! I've never said you could come along!"

"But we can help!" Dipper said. "You said there are puzzles and riddles around the cars? We can do our part, we've been doing this stuff already!"

"Mystery twins!" Mabel cried, launching a hand in the air and assuming an epic pose.

"We can also…" he navigated below his waistcoat, "where is- oh, right, it's not here. Dang my habit… I mean, if you believe we will slow you down, rest assured we won't. We will only be around for the time needed to figure out how to get out of this train ourselves!"

Tulip was beginning to get really vexed by the insistence of these kids. Yet, One-One just had to add his two cents by whispering: "Think about it, Miss Tulip, after all three heads are better than one!"

"And it's widely known that shared pain is a little more bearable…"

Tulip narrowed her eyes… and eventually, she gave in. "Oh, fine, fine! But try to not get in trouble, and ask before doing anything! It's already hard enough to keep One-One under control!"

"Yeee!" Mabel started to dance around in victory, as Dipper made a perfect military-esque salute. "You won't be disappointed, Ma'am!"

Tulip rolled her eyes and simply moved around. That didn't prevent her from hearing a whisper from behind her, "Huh, grumpy nerd. Can't believe I mistook her for Wen-…"

"What did you just say?" Tulip suddenly turned around and glared at Dipper.

"Nothing! Nothing! Just messing around with Mabel!" Dipper immediately said with a huge, unnatural grin as he hugged Mabel, motioning her to do the same. Tulip narrowed her eyelids but eventually she simply hmphed.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Just… call me Tulip, okay?"

The two kids nodded energetically, and Tulip turned around with a sigh. "This was a mistake…" she muttered to herself as she began walking.

"Some company will surely help you out, Miss Tulip!" Glad-One said.

"Maybe… but I can't help but feel I'm going to regret this," Tulip replied. She reached the end of the hallway, then moved to the door and opened the way for the next car, letting in the loud noise of the fast-moving train and the air gusts caused by the turbulence.

"Just… keep me away from the girl," Sad-One specified.

What could be interpreted as a wicked smile crossed Tulip's face for an instant. "All right… if you say so…"

She moved through the connecting platform and put her hand on the doorknob for the next car, but instead of opening she looked behind to give a glance to her two new companions.

"What are you two waiting for?" she said once realizing that both Dipper and Mabel were still in the previous car, unwilling to make a step on the catwalk apparently.

"How fast is this train going exactly?!" Dipper shouted, even if it was not that noisy out there. Mabel was behind him, keeping her brother's shoulders under her hands and without any intention of letting him go.

Tulip sighed. "I tried once to calculate it and I wasn't able to get anything better than 'more than 120 miles per hour'. Why?"

"Uhh, nothing! Just… open the way and we'll follow you!" Dipper said with a nervous chuckle. Tulip shrugged and opened the door for the following car. She got a glimpse of the inside, to see that, at least, this car did follow the real world's rules of volume limits... for now. She made two steps into the chamber only to hear a cry from behind her, followed by two bodies ramming into her back. The three plummeted down to the floor, which resulted in Tulip losing her glasses.

"Hey, it wasn't that bad in the end!" Mabel said with sincere surprise.

"Yeah, maybe we'll get used to it. Right, Tul-…  _oh,"_  Dipper said, only to realize who they were lying on. The Pines twins immediately moved away from the girl, who was visibly gritting her teeth in anger. "Eheh. Oops. Sorry…"

"I'm going to pretend that did not even happen,  _too,_  but that's your last chance!" Tulip snarled. She gave a glance around until she located the silhouette of her glasses… thank goodness, she was short-sighted but not downright blind without them. She put them on and looked through the lenses, examining the car they had ended up into.

It was actually one of the 'void' cars, as she had mentally dubbed them. Apparently completely empty rooms that hid secrets you had to find to open the way for the next car… or didn't, like the fart car.

Disgusted, Tulip temporarily removed the memory from her mind and moved to the nearest wall. "So, listen up you two, I've already been in a few cars like this one. We just have to…" she began before whirling around to face the two kids, but once she realized what was happening she trailed off.

Dipper and Mabel were already walking around, touching the car's walls  _and_ floor on the hunt for clues.

"Keep looking, Mabel, there's got to be some trigger hidden around here. I've been in way more underground mazes to think there isn't!" Dipper said as he carefully passed his hand on a few wall tiles.

"Bum! Nothing!" Mabel commented her attempts at activating secret switches in real time. She threw a slap to another tile with no results. "Bum! Nothing!" she repeated.

"Ahem!"

The twins stopped their work to look at the girl. "What did I say about asking  _before_ doing?" she asked, crossing her arms with a stern look.

"Oh, please, how are we supposed to help you if we can't explore?" Dipper answered, as he resumed his search  _without_ waiting for Tulip's approval.

"I don't need  _help,_  especially if you have no idea what you can stumble upon in this train!" Tulip replied. "And, for crying out loud,  _stop touching the walls!"_

"As if there are death traps here!" Mabel couldn't help but chuckle. "Relax, Tulip-girl! Me and my bro will get the solution done in no time!  _Bum!"_

Instead of 'nothing' the tile Mabel had just pressed moved inwards. "Jackpot!" Mabel cheered, but the exultance died out once the event was followed by noises of gearwork activating behind the walls. Seconds later, a tile started to move  _outwards._ Then another one.

In no time, there were thirty tiles moving towards the centre of the car, pushed by pistons hidden in the sidewalls.

Tulip groaned her frustration out. "I  _knew_ I was going to regret this! See what I am talking about?!" she cried, glaring at the Pines. But Dipper and Mabel were far from preoccupied.

In fact, they seemed  _amused._

"Are you serious? Is this what we should be wary of?" Dipper was visibly stifling chuckles.

"This is like a trash movie remixing a good one!" Mabel said. "It's like a kids' version!"

"What in the world are you two talking about?!" Tulip was starting to lose her patience after two minutes of travelling along with her two new companions. She ran to the door that led back to the passenger car, but of course it had been automatically closed. The pistons continued to move towards them, reducing the space available in the chamber. "Gah, this is far from good, how are you two rambling about bad movies right NOW?!"

"We've already saw a trap of sorts like this one, Tulip," Dipper explained as Mabel 'booped' the moving tiles, apparently unaware of the approaching danger. "And it was far more dangerous than this one. These pistons are moving at, like, half the speed, and there's way more space to move around!"

"…you're telling me you've ended up in a trap room with pistons already?"

"Long story, but don't worry. We've got this!" Dipper reassured. "There's always a solution… and in this case, I don't even need the Journal!"

Mabel suddenly noticed a tile with a symbol over it: a square with one of the vertex illuminated by a green light. "Found it!" she exclaimed before jumping over to the tile without asking for allowance and pressing the symbol with one of her hands. The tile didn't budge but the light changed its colour to light blue and something buzzed under it.

"A square with a lightened angle, huh? Piece of cake. Aaand…. Here you are!" Dipper said before moving to reach another pair of moving tiles and pressing both his hands on the tiles with the symbols over them. Two buzz sounds followed.

"And I call the last one over Tulip!" Mabel pointed at the piston moving right above Tulip's head. Up until that moment, both Tulip and One-One had been staring at the twins dumbfounded, unable to process any words as they quickly solved the puzzle. Mechanically, the redhead complied with what she was obviously supposed to do, raised her left hand and touched the wall piece. The buzz response sound was emitted, and all the pistons immediately retracted to their previous position. A latch was heard being unlocked, and the door for the next car opened a little bit, showing that the puzzle had been solved.

"See? It wasn't that hard. I tell you – if they're all on this level we'll get through this train in no time, trust me!" Dipper remarked as he gave Tulip a thumbs-up.

"Yay! Train travelling masters!" Mabel yelled before high-fiving her brother. The Pines then ran to the door, opened it and immediately retreated once they realized that there was another catwalk to pass over.

"Uhh… Tulip… would you kindly lead the way?" Dipper asked timidly as he and Mabel turned to her. The question finally had the effect of shaking Tulip off from her trance, as she was still on the other side of the car. "Coming, coming…" she said before walking over to join them.

"Well, they  _do_ seem to know what they're doing!" Glad-One chirped, peeking at the twins from the girl's backpack.

"And maybe they'll survive for more than five minutes…" Sad-One admitted.

"Shut up, you two! They may have solved this one, but you and I know that there are far more complex and dangerous places in this train!" Tulip argued, annoyed by One-One's remarks.

Yet, as she made her way to Mabel and Dipper, she couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe… it wasn't really going to be  _that_ bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For these starting chapters I wanted to focus on Tulip's point of view, but later we'll also see more of what's going on in Dipper's and Mabel's minds. As of now, the story may total seven chapters once finished, but we shall see.


	3. Trust No One

"Mmm…"

…

"Mmmmmh…"

…

"Mmmh… Mmmmmhhh…"

"Mabel, it's just a tic-tac-toe, they're not asking you to give the answer to life, the universe and everything."

"I know! Let me just think about it a little more - an unappreciated genius is at work here!"

Dipper simply sighed and shrugged his sister's shenanigans off. Let her try to beat the schemes as much as she wanted… he had already tried to do so himself plenty of times along with Tulip, but no one of them had managed to defeat the invisible opponent that filled the squares once they wrote down their own symbol, invariably beating them every time.

He looked around, checking for a second time the contents of the train car they were in… even if there wasn't much to see in the first place. It was a mostly empty carriage, with wooden walls who had endured the test of time, apparently, and a few tables adding to the atmosphere. Tic-tac-toe schemes littered every possible surface available, ready to be tested by the next traveller who dared to challenge them.

Dipper's eyes finally fell on the redhead who had been accompanying him and Mabel up until that moment. Tulip was visibly annoyed, as could be seen by her vexed frown and the way she continued to touch the walls and tables compulsively, looking for a secret switch or whatever element that could help them move forward.

They had managed to solve the riddles of five cars before ending up in the Tic-Tac-Toe one. Mabel and Dipper had been expecting the worst while travelling through the train at first, with the triangle responsible for their presence there in the first place and all, but the tests contained inside the various train cars had proved to be mostly easy for their combined minds. Tulip had simply watched in awe as the twins opened the way for the next car again and again without a hitch: she was shocked by the fact they weren't dazed at all by the strange puzzles they had to solve, but both twins had shrugged it off.

A few words about a couple of their adventures in Gravity Falls did the trick to convince her… if anything, she was now doubting of the mysteries of the town back in Oregon rather than their skills.

"Why won't you give me something to work with? Anything?" Tulip grumbled to herself. Dipper had noticed that the girl had the habit to express her thoughts out-loud, even without directly referring to the funny four-legged robot who was currently waving at him from the girl's backpack.

That was not, however, the only thing he noticed regarding Tulip. He didn't fail to make a mental note of how she had the peculiar habit of giving a glance to her right hand and sighing immediately after. The curiosity was killing him now... he just had to take a little peek…

"Hello!" Glad-One tweeted when he saw Dipper attempting to approach them without being heard. "Did Miss Mabel have some luck with the tic-tac-toes?"

Tulip turned around to look at the kid with her eyes narrowed… and the right hand closed. "Yeah, Dipper, how about that?"

Dipper grinned awkwardly. "I... we, ahem… hehe… she's a little stubborn… but don't worry! We're absolutely on the best track, you have nothing to worry about… especially not about me stalk- I mean, not about us not doing our part, right? Hehe…"

Tulip raised an eyebrow, but she eventually decided to discard questioning the boy. "Right. Keep looking or trying to win those tic-tac-toes or whatever… and do not disturb me!"

"Absolutely, Ma'am!" Dipper immediately answered, but Tulip had already turned around. He wasn't sure whether Tulip was acting grumpy because she was annoyed by  _them,_ or simply because of her current distress with the schemes. He couldn't really help making hypothesises… without the journal, his mind simply had to find something else to think about.

Something  _else_  was bothering her, apparently. It was probably linked to the two of them, but not as Dipper and Mabel Pines. It had something to do with the fact that they  _were_ in the train. Maybe-

"I WON! I WON!" Mabel's yell almost cracked the side windows of the car and made Tulip and Dipper scream in surprise.

"MABEL!" they both called, but Mabel wasn't going to feel dejected right now. "Oh, gimme a break you two. I know we agreed not to startle each other out, but I just beat one of these!"

She looked at the tic-tac-toe scheme she had managed to win and gloated in the glory of victory. "You weren't expecting my secret move, weren't you, huh? In your face, evil tic-tac-toer!"

Right below the solved scheme, the drawing of a sad face appeared. A second later, the latch for the next car was heard opening.

"Well, thank you, Mabel," Tulip said without interest. "Less partying and more moving."

She immediately went for the door without any other words and quickly made her way to the next car. "Miss Tulip, don't you think we could stop for a while? Maybe we could talk a little with our new friends… I'm sure they're nice, and it'd be a shame if-"

"Now, first, they're not  _our friends,"_ Tulip interrupted coldly. "And second, they are good at solving the puzzles, and that's why we're travelling together. End of the story."

"I sense a little anxiety in those words…" Sad-One remarked.

"Ugh! Okay, I'm not what you'd call cool," Tulip finally confessed. They had already entered the next car and waited right to the side of the door for the twins to tumble over the floor, like they usually did since they still had a little difficulty in handling the outside catwalks.

"I'm… I don't know, it's that there's these two siblings here which are the closest to my own situation that I've ever met here, and I'm still close to nothing about figuring out what's the deal with the train! With  _this!"_ She gestured to the infamous bright-green number.

One-One moved a little and his body appeared right on the side of Tulip's head. "Maybe you're just giving it more thought than needed, Miss Tulip. They might simply not be able to help us."

"They are as lost as we are, even if a different way. How could they?" Sad-One added.

"I know. It's… I look at them, and I can only think that it's another way this stupid train is laughing behind my back while keeping me in the dark. I'd probably even have preferred another stunt of the monster, robot… or whatever  _that_ was. At least that gave me something-"

" _What monster?"_

Tulip nearly lost her equilibrium. "Ack!" she yelped as she staggered around. Dipper and Mabel had finally managed to pass the catwalk without throwing themselves inside the next car, and in doing so they had come in without alerting Tulip of their presence.

"Yeah, how about  _that?"_ Dipper repeated his sister's words, mimicking Tulip's own words and tone from before. Tulip suddenly felt a hint of nervousness inside her.

He  _could_ tell them, she had no reason to continue hiding the little knowledge she hadn't shared with them yet. But, even so… Tulip wasn't sure about it. She had no way to predict how they would react to her happenings in Corginia and the two digits on her palm.

"Uhh… yeah, a monster, those are pretty nasty, and the last one was a nightmare!" Tulip cautiously selected her words. That wasn't a lie, really… well, technically the 'beast', as Atticus called it, was the first ever being she could identify as a 'monster' since the beginning of her travel more than one week before.

She  _had_ to add a little effect to her speech, though!

"Well, don't worry! Me and Dipper had to deal with all kinds of magic creatures as well!" Mabel said happily. Her brother remained in silence, studying the redhead as she chuckled, or forced herself to do so. It wasn't clear what she did of the two.

"Hehe… very good… I think I am going to take a look around!" Tulip said quickly before retreating to the other side of the car. This train wagon wasn't much different from the previous one: instead of tables filled with tic-tac-toes, though, this one was devoid of any addition sans for a circular, miniature-kiosk-looking wooden structure in the centre. There were gaps on every side of the octagon, but they were sealed by wooden bars.

Mabel brought a finger to her chin. "Thinking about it, that's the only Gravity Falls feature type we've yet to encounter here. Maybe-"

"Please, quit trying to jinx it and have us attacked by horrendous beings… and listen," Dipper interrupted. "Mabel, something isn't right with Tulip."

"What? She's a little grouchy, that's true, but I'd be grouchy too if I had to talk to nothing but a tiny robot for days! Even if I probably wouldn't, I love that thing!" she said. Just as she said that she waved at One-One, who was peeking from Tulip's backpack away from them. Once the bot saw who was trying to say hi to him, he sank into the fabric and closed himself in…

…only to later reopen it and wave back. "How can you not love it?" Mabel wondered.

Dipper shook his head. "Mabel, think about it. It's been bugging me… she's evasive of any questions concerning  _her,_ she seems to be always on the edge whenever we're around, and she  _keeps_ looking at her hand! Something's fishy, and if I ever learned something during the last month, it was to not to believe everything you see."

"Maybe she still has to get used to us. Why would she want to hide something to us, anyway?" Mabel asked.

"Bill, Mabel. Don't you forget  _why_ we're here," Dipper said.

Mabel found herself unable to argue with that statement. She shuddered at the thought that Bill was probably keeping them under his sight right now, ready to strike at any time. "But… if that's so, then what we can do?"

"We must discover what's going on with her," Dipper whispered, clutching her sister with one arm and using the other to point at Tulip, who was examining the next door. "Starting with understanding what she's so interested in on that palm of hers."

"If you say so…" Mabel said uneasily. She was beginning to get used to the way of things here: solving random puzzles and cuddling a frightened robot once in a while. Yet, she knew that her brother wasn't just being apprehensive… he had a point, and with Bill's involvement they couldn't let their guard down.

Dipper noticed the uncertainty in her tone. "Hey, we got this. Remember, we're still trying to figure out how to get back to the shack. Heck, they might even wake us up any moment now!"

* * *

"Are you sure about that?" Stan said. His face was very clear in showing how reluctant he was to trust the handyman's words.

"One-hundred percent sure, Mr. Pines! My grandma has full knowledge of the art of caring and she's always told me: if they sleep long, let them sleep longer!"

"They've been there for three hours now. They never take naps this long, not even after staying up late at night the day before, and I know they did," Stan argued.

"Oh, if I ever learned something from school, it was that biology is the weirdest science of them all!"

"How does that even have to do with the kids, Soos?"

"Well, they  _are_ biology machines. But regardless, trust me on this one, Mr. Pines. You did just check them out and they were all well and good, weren't they?"

"I guess…" Stan had to admit it. He was probably imagining things, and the kids were simply tired. He looked through the door of the twins' bedroom, which had been left ajar, and out of their window, glancing at the rising moon. "At this point, we'll wait for them to wake up on their own  _tomorrow."_

* * *

"Or maybe not," Mabel replied.

"Yeah, probably not… but still! Remember, we're not doing this out of spite for her... if she's not involved, that is. We must discover why Bill got us here, and whether he's prepared something for us or not,  _before_ he shows up himself… and we can't take any chances, Mabel. Understood?"

Mabel nodded. "I still believe she's okay, though…"

"That's what we have to make sure of," Dipper explained. He finally let his sister go and gave a glance around himself. "Now, about this train car, where could-"

" **BEHOLD!"**

Mabel and Dipper yelped in surprise as the shout was followed right after by the sudden opening of the kiosk in the centre of the car. The wood boards fell down in invisible holes, revealing a cylinder-based shelf completely full of random goods of all types, materials and sizes.

Tulip turned around in surprise as well, just in time to see the obvious responsible of the event springing up from below the ledge.

An old man was looking at her. He owned an absurdly long, grey-coloured beard and a very funny hat who looked all like the one of a powerful wizard. His vest was far different though, being it more linkable to the one of a carnival mask, multiple colours combined to make the most disturbing view possible for the eyes.

"The Riddle Custody! Ran by the one and only, the Riddle-Maker!" the apparent shopkeeper uttered. "We sell mysteries, questions and tests for your average adventurer for terrific prices! Come now and make use of the sales, only for a limited time!"

Tulip didn't seem to be too much surprised by the weird appearance of the old man. She leaned sideward a little to check Dipper and Mabel out, and found out they were staring wide eyed at the shopkeeper.

"Oh, right, they didn't know the cars could be inhabited," she stated, not really talking to anyone.

"Oooh, a souvenir store! Maybe we can buy some presents for the twins!" Glad-One proposed.

"I'm sure they'd love a present that will make them remember of this  _beautiful_  experience…" Sad-One muttered sarcastically.

"For once, I agree with you… one of your halves, at least," Tulip said. She walked over to the shelf and rested her arms on the wood as the shopkeeper immediately rushed to serve her. "My, what a nice Miss I see here! How can I help you?"

"Sorry, Mister," Tulip cut it short. "We really don't have something to pay you, and even if we had, we're just passing by. Would you perhaps know the way to unlock the door for the next train car?"

"Would I? Maybe… maybe…" the Riddle-Maker said to himself, scratching his wrinkled chin.

"Let me guess… a riddle?" Tulip said, unimpressed.

"Oh, a fresh mind I see!" the old man seemed amused. "Let me talk at once, or you might find yourself pounced!"

"And the horrendous trail of non-existent rhymes starts. Boy, am I thrilled…" Tulip groaned and prepared herself for the approaching riddle.

She didn't have the chance to hear out the Riddle-Maker, though, as someone broke into their conversation.

"Uuh… pardon?"

Tulip brought a hand to her front. "Not now, Dipper!" she said with annoyance, "Let me talk with him!"

Dipper and Mabel stood at the other side of the kiosk. Their slightly shorter height compared to Tulip made it a little difficult for them to look over the counter, but that wasn't going to stop Dipper from talking. "We want to talk with him, too!" he retorted. "We need to know, Sir, if you know anything about interdimensional travel or if you've ever seen floating… triangles... uuh…"

The Riddle-Maker had waited five seconds once hearing first the voice of Dipper, after which he had bolted to the twins. He was not leaning over the counter, looking at them with his eyes like a policeman would have done to a thief caught red-handed.

" _What are you doing here?"_  the Riddle-Maker said, his tone completely different now… full of hostility.

"Uh-what? How about you tell us why?" Dipper replied. "We've been trying to-"

" _You're not allowed to leave your car. Did you forget about that?!"_

"No, no, hold it for a sec. There's a little misunderstanding here, we-"

" _You have no idea what you've put yourself into, brats! No_ _ **model,**_ _no pass through! Turn back and return to your car!"_

The Riddle-Maker was basically shouting know. He literally jumped over the counter, with Mabel and Dipper walking back, both scared by his reaction and holding each other's hands for comfort.  _"Return to your_ _ **car!"**_

"STOP THIS INSTANT!"

Tulip marched in between the Riddle-Maker and the twins, One-One peeking from behind her. "What's the deal with all of this, 'Riddle-Maker'? What's with this permission to leave cars, with this 'model' you've just referenced?" she questioned.

The old man narrowed his eyes, he wasn't clearly going to return to his friendlier demeanour. "Questions are not something that will bring you forward in your quest, young lady."

"Questions are what I need an answer for! You're literally the first guy I end up meeting in one of the cars who seems to know a bit more than the rest about this train!"

"All you have to know, traveller, is that you must keep on… without the runawayshere," the geezer said, glaring at the twins who were huddled behind Tulip.

"Runaways? What in the name of…" Tulip was exasperated. "They're with me, okay? They're travellers just like me… what do them have that I do not?"

The Riddle-Maker made a step back and looked Tulip up and down. He tilted his head as he looked at One-One, who simply waved friendlily and obliviously to the tension, and he fired a last icy glare to the Pines. Then, he closed his eyes and looked down, all while the door for the next car was unlocked.

"Go," he simply said.

"Huh?"

"I said go… and don't try to return here," the Riddle-Maker repeated. Tulip scowled but she moved forward, passing him without deigning him of a last look. "Dipper, Mabel, come on, let's get moving."

The twins scurried behind her, making sure to keep their distance from the old man. The Riddle-Maker stood where he was, immobile, and he continued to do so even after the three of them let the door close itself.

"Geez… who the heck was that guy?" Dipper asked.

"An inhabitant of these train cars. There are more of them around the train… talking animals included. But this… I never saw anyone have such a behaviour before… he didn't like seeing you two at all."

"We did nothing wrong!" Mabel protested.

"It might not be something you've done willingly that angered him," Tulip mused. "One-One, he said something about a ' _model'_ as thoughts?"

"My mind is as free as the free ocean!" Glad-One replied.

"If he ever was referring to us, Miss Tulip, that still wouldn't be something we could know for sure," Sad-One specified.

"Ugh, how surprising," she said, finally deciding to walk through the catwalk to open the successive door. "He was definitely hiding something, though…"

She turned her head for a moment, glancing at Dipper and Mabel, who now were a little less bold in their behaviour.

_And I don't think I'm going to like it once we discover what it was._

* * *

_Bill didn't like how the current state of events was evolving._

_He was surprised to see Glowing Number at first. He had checked this dimension more than one time and, apart from the weird occupants of a few cars, he believed the train as a whole to be devoid of passengers. He, then, had decided to let her interact with the twins and see how it would play out._

_He didn't like how Pine Tree and Shooting Star had somehow managed to stick to the traveller and the bot she carried with her. He didn't like how they solved the various tests waiting for them in the cars with ease, which he expected to be much more challenging for the two of them._

_And he, most notably, didn't like how she was now_ _**helping** _ _them deal with the problems that arose from their very presence in the train._

_The floating triangle was just a moment away from deciding to intervene himself when he noticed a change. His lone eye scanned quickly the dimension for the source of the disturbance, and in a few instants, he found what had caused it._

_If he had had a mouth, he would have smiled._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was cut a little, because I don't really want to add filler segments just to write longer chapters. Compared to most of my stories the plot is progressing a little slower than I'd have thought, I have to admit, but from the next chapter onwards things are going to get a bit more interesting and action-oriented. Stay tuned!


	4. Stowaways

Tulip took hold of the doorknob and sighed to herself.  _Please be home… please be home…_

But when she pushed the door open, before her there was anything but what she would've liked to see. She frowned and forced herself not to let out a bitter comment.  _Of course. Why do I even continue to hope…?_

Two heads leaned over from behind her. "Whoa…" Dipper scratched his eyes, not believing what his eyes were seeing.

"It's… it's huge!" Mabel said, equally hesitant to accept the scene in front of her as reality.

Tulip groaned and simply moved into the 'car' without waiting for them. "Not every car is actually car-sized on the inside. Don't ask how that's possible, because I know as much as you," she cut short while walking over the  _grass._

Around them there was a large landscape, made of various hills, a few rare trees and even a couple of streams of water. It uncannily looked a lot like Corginia… except for the Corgis and their lustrous residences.

There was not onesignthat there was even one living being inhabiting the place, except for the plants. Tulip couldn't even hear the buzzing of flying insects or the calls sang by birds in love: the car was  _silent,_ except for the wind of dubious origin that sometimes caused the rustle of the trees' foliage, the sound far away of flowing water and the dull noises of the moving train under them.

"Did someone use to live here?" Dipper asked to himself more than anyone. The twins were already following Tulip.

"This place would sure benefit from a little more life…" Mabel said. "It looks so…  _dead."_

Tulip scowled and ignored them. "Any ideas where to go, One-One?"

"I consider this car appropriate to my state of mind," Sad-One said.

"Anything  _useful?"_

"How about there, Miss Tulip?" Glad-One proposed. He leaned forward and pointed at a hill's peak. "It sure looks like someone  _has_ been there before!"

The bot was right: over the hill there were remains of some type of construction; ruins, to be precise. "Yeah, it's our best bet anyway. We might as well get going – if anything, from up there we may be able to see where we can find the next door."

"Tulip, don't you think we could look around a little before-" Dipper started.

"No, I don't," Tulip cut him off, and she didn't even turn around. "We'll move forward and that's all we will do… I can do without your constant meddling for once."

That said, Tulip walked away without checking if the Pines were following her. One-One could only 'shrug' at the twins as he was brought away on her backpack.

"Sheesh…  _I can do without your meddling._ The same 'meddling' that got her through more than half of the previous cars, including the last one with the mirrors," Dipper grumbled.

"She was nicer when we first met her… I thought she would get over being so irascible. Why is she getting more and more touchy?" Mabel said. "I don't understand. Was it something we've said? Or is she still thinking about what the Riddle-Maker-guy said?"

"I'm not sure, but I guess it's a combination of both," Dipper said. "But of one thing I'm sure… we cannot continue like this. She may be Miss Grumpiness and all, but she owes us answers, and I'm already sick of waiting. I'm going up there and I'm not shutting up until she tells us what we want!"

"Dipper, wait! Don't you think that'd be a little harsh? I still think she's not an enemy! I mean, look at her, I saw her just as confused as us more than once. We're all on the same boat… why would she want to hinder us?"

"I don't know, but whether she wants or not, she's  _doing so!_  If that's not true, why wouldn't she just tell us already what she's been hiding?!" Dipper argued. "No, Mabel, I'm officially out of the 'following Tulip girl' game."

Mabel sighed and she eventually nodded. Dipper was right… after the encounter with the creepy old man two cars before, she had begun to find the train less and less friendly than she originally thought. She wanted to get away as much as Dipper right now, and Tulip wasn't being cooperative.

They walked up the hill and reached the ruins. The white marble and peculiar architecture suggested a Greek-Roman origin of the original project, even if explaining  _why_ there were Greek-looking ruins inside a  _train_  was another matter. Even so, Dipper and Mabel didn't deign the stone more than one glance.

They walked beside a column, climbed over a huge block and finally located Tulip – she was keeping a hand over her eyes, scanning the area around her from the other side of the hill, out of the area dotted by the ruins. Dipper and Mabel looked at each other and they nodded. The former straightened his hat before marching over to the redhead.

" _Tulip,"_ Dipper called once they were behind her.

Tulip turned around as One-One moved to her own side – he had previously been left to walk on the ground. "What now? What did you do?"

"Nothing interesting. Unlike you…"

Tulip raised an eyebrow. "What? What do you mean?"

"Tulip, we…" Mabel started. She wanted to at least try a more diplomatic approach before letting Dipper go on a tantrum. "We've been thinking and… we think that you didn't tell us the full story yet, about this train and all."

"You're hiding something," Dipper continued. "Don't try to fool us, I know how you've been giving glances to your hand."

"Tulip… we want to trust you... but we can't if you keep us in the dark. What's so important that you don't want to tell us?" Mabel finally asked.

Tulip reaction was one of total astonishment. "Wait, wait, WAIT!" she said, mechanically hiding her right hand behind her back, "Hold it! First, I have nothing to tell you and even if I had I'd have every right to decide not to tell anything, and second, you've been more than a thorn on my side than anything… so why would I want to help  _you at_ all?"

"What?!" Dipper was beyond gobsmacked. "We almost did  _everything_  in your place up until now!"

Tulip scoffed. "You helped, right… I saw  _hoooow_  much you've helped back then with the Riddle-Maker. Here I was, just an inch away from knowing a little more about the train… but no! He looks at you two and tells me to take off!"

"Miss Tulip," Glad-One started, "we don't really need to-…"

Tulip continued on with her rant. "Ever since I saw you two, I thought that I had found another clue that would've helped me understand what was behind this stupid train… but instead, I ended up having two annoying twins following me, and the more I look at you the more it seems this  _thing_ we're in is making fun of me!"

"But what?! What do you want to understand, Tulip?" Dipper replied, holding his arms out. "How can we even know if or  _how_  we're annoying you if you don't tell us  _why we do?"_

"Because I… because I already have my own rate of problems to take care of!" Tulip said, crossing her arms rebelliously.

"That's not a real answer! Gah, now I know why Bill sent us into this train… I guess he knew who we were going to meet here."

"Dipper, that's not true!" Mabel placed a hand over her brother's shoulder. "Bill would never-!" she started, only to be interrupted by Tulip's voice.

"You know what? For all I know, 'Bill' might even be able to help me get out of this train!" she finally snapped, earning the flabbergasted gazes of the Pines. "You said he got you there? Well, maybe he can get me  _out!_ I'm sure he'd be of more help than you two could ever be!"

"Are you nuts!?" Dipper shouted, "Bill is the worst double-crossing, deceitful being of the entire dreamscape, if not what number of innumerable dimensions!"

"Oh, yeah… so I should believe in you two about Bill and all these dimensions you keep rambling about… how typical it would be, to believe two kids who got teleported here for  _no_ reason at all but being apparently on the black list of a bad guy whose motives are not even that clear…" Tulip's sarcastic tone was not easily missed. "Ugh, I was right when I thought I'd regret this… heck, I should've left you where I found you!"

"Oh, great!" Dipper opened a hand directed towards Tulip and looked around himself, speaking with a virtual crowd. "She says one thing I agree with! Remaining there would surely have been a better outcome than following you in your non-sensical travel!"

Tulip narrowed her eyes. "What did you just say…?"

"You heard that loud and clear, you have no idea where you're going – just like us!" Dipper said. He walked over to her, bearing her piercing gaze. "The game of playing the mystery girl finishes now, Tulip!" he said as he suddenly rushed to her and grabber her right arm. "Let us  _see what's on your hand!"_

"What the –  _get your hands off me!"_ Tulip barked, but Dipper didn't let go. Soon, they started to brawl, with the latter trying to open her closed hand and the former trying to pry him away from her.

"What are you two doing!?" Mabel said, panicking. She was used to  _fight_ with Dipper at most, not stopping him from fighting other people! "Stop! We won't get anywhere this way!  _Hey!"_

"Miss Tulip, please, cease this non-sense! You're arguing over nothing!" Glad-One for once sounded far from being happy. Sad-One later added, "Brooding was acceptable, but this is not!"

But Tulip and Dipper ignored them both, and they would have begun to try to punch their way into victory if it wasn't for a sudden interruption. A soundwave of an enormous amount of glass panels being broken and shattered went through the place, too loud not to be noticed. The two battlers stopped in mid-fight, suddenly forgetting about their heated discussion.

"Did… did you hear that?" Mabel didn't try to hide her fear.

"Yes… that was coming from the previous car, it was full of mirrors…" Tulip thought out loud. She then realized who she was still entwined with Dipper and she separated herself from him. The two of them crossed their hands and looked away from each other, scowling.

"I suggest that we take our leave,  _now,"_ Sad-One proposed, right before nodding his head energetically as Glad-One.

"Yeah, we better get out of here," Tulip confirmed. But yet, she felt something tugging at her sweater.

"No, we won't go anywhere," Dipper affirmed. Tulip, Mabel and One-One looked at him like he was out of his mind.

"Dipper, that's enough! She got the message!" Mabel said.

"What in the world do you want now? Don't you see we're in trouble?" Tulip questioned.

"Guess I will write that obituary, after all," Sad-One muttered.

"I won't move and neither will you – not until you tell us what we want!" Dipper stated, his gaze as firm as ever. Mabel didn't remember seeing him so determined… he was  _dead serious._

Tulip would really have liked to give him a piece of her mind… but she had a  _hunch_  about what was coming, and she'd have preferred to be as far away as possible from this car, if her guess was true. "Fine! FINE!" she finally let out in defeat, and she showed him. Dipper was almost blinded by the light: "What the…" he stammered, only to realize that Tulip did not suddenly get a flashlight to dazzle him: there was a number on her palm, 49, which glowed with a bright green light.

"That… that's it?" Dipper couldn't help but say. "A number? That's why you've been acting this bad until now?"

"No, of course not… it's… you… it… agh!" Tulip cleared her throat. "Just let us go before we regre-"

A crash was heard. The four travellers turned to the source and they saw  _a piece of the sky_ fall towards the ground, no more than one-hundred meters away from them. It landed violently, sending sparks of metal all around. From the hole it had left, the reddish sky of the desert could be seen.

Tulip bit her lip as the first mechanic tentacle appeared on the edge of the hole. Destiny wasn't helping her again… she was right. One-One climbed over her in order to get a better look: the bot didn't seem to be perturbed by the sight. He had already showed he did not fear it… if anything, he was preoccupied for the safety of his friend.

Both of them, though, were more or less stoic in witnessing the return of their old acquaintance. That couldn't be said for Dipper and Mabel: the twins began shuddering as soon as the tentacles slowly began to make their way into the car, and they had to hold on each other to not start running on the spot once the full figure of the  _Steward_  came to view.

"What… is… THAT!?" Dipper wheezed out, too scared to actually shout.

"Tone it down! And  _don't move!"_ Tulip commanded. "It might not be looking for us."

"Wait… you know that thing?" Dipper asked.

"Yes, and believe it or not, I'm almost happy to see it…"

"Can-… can you tell him to leave us alone?" Mabel stammered.

"I doubt she would listen… just be quiet and let her do her thing," she repeated. The twins had now no intention to argue with her, and they complied with the order.

The Steward slowly descended as much as it could, dangling on its tentacles, before letting itself fall. The landing was quieter and gentler than they would have thought, as it used its appendages to ease its fall. The Steward immediately stood upright, showing its white mask and the blue flames that continued to burn out of its eyes, and it looked around quietly, scanning the area.

 _I take back everything I thought about this train until now. This as much if not creepier than most of the stuff back in Gravity Falls…_ Dipper thought. The figure of the Steward and its behaviour were worrying to say the least… it was looking for something.

Or someone.

Once the Steward's head was pointed towards the group, it stopped rotating. It stayed immobile where it was for ten, long seconds, where the air suddenly became heavy and lacking in oxygen for Tulip and the twins… then, it started to move.

"I guess staying immobile didn't work out," Sad-One said matter-of-factly.

"I'm sure we can talk it out!" Glad-One chirped.

"One-One… not the time," Tulip said. She glanced back towards the twins, who were slowly backing towards the ruins. "Stay where you are. We don't want to anger her."

"What's so wrong with simply escaping for our lives?!" Dipper protested.

"That's because she's the key out here… at least, I hope she can help us find it," Tulip said. She turned away and redirected her gaze to the approaching Steward. "And I'm willing to risk it!"

 _Oh, god… she's out of it,_ the boy thought. He looked at Mabel and saw in her face that a similar thought had crossed her mind. They didn't understand why Tulip would have waited for the monster to reach them, but they weren't of the same idea.

When Tulip turned around to look at them again, Dipper and Mabel had disappeared. She, however, didn't pay it much more attention... they had made their choice, and she had made hers.  _This is it… we meet again, 'beast'._

The Steward spent just a few seconds to climb over the hill where they had previously spent the last few minutes. In a few moments the gear monstrosity was already over Tulip: the tentacles pierced the terrain all around her and the white mask approached her face, staring at her. Tulip could almost feel the warmth emitted by the flames.

" _Return to your seat,"_ the Steward repeated with its robotic, female-sounding voice for the second time.

"What is that even supposed to mean… who are you? What are you?" Tulip asked. "I'm not scared of you! Tell me what I want! Tell me what does  _this mean!"_

She agitated her hand in front of herself, showing the glowing '49' to the Steward. One-One looked over from Tulip, in wait for the 'beast' to respond.

The Steward seemed to ignore Tulip questions at first. It moved away from her and moved its full body above the girl.

" _Received report of possible stowaways. Estimating current location,"_ it said as it looked beyond her. Whether it was answering one of Tulip's questions or just playing an automatic message, the girl had no clue, but the content of the sentence was not something she liked to hear.

" _Stowaways?_  Why would you even be able to find a stowaway in this-…" the words died in her throat as the realization came to her. Stowaway, as by definition, someone who was not supposed to be on the transport vehicle in the first place.

_Oh, no…_

Without notice, machine guns came out of the Steward's eyes, and the robot opened fire. Tulip, deafened by the roaring gunfire just above her, cried in fright and threw herself to the ground, trying to protect her ears from the noise. One-One rolled away, unable to control his own fall.

The Steward continued the shooting, filling with lead the Greek ruins and either reducing marble to Swiss Cheese or obliterating the few remaining structures still upright. Only after a minute the robot ceased its attack.

The rounds fired by the Steward had raised a layer of smoke above the hill's peak, but the breeze was fast in clearing the air from the dust, revealing the result of the machine's attack. Most of the ruins had been annihilated for good, and only a few lone pieces of stone had been spared by the lead storm.

In the centre of the pandemonium lay the bodies of Dipper and Mabel. When Tulip finally had the courage to raise her head and watch the aftermath, for a terrible instant she thought that the worst had just happened. But the twins moved moments after, standing up and cleaning off the dirt and dust from their clothes.

"Quick, Mabel, let's get outta here before…" Dipper began, but he soon realized that his sentence would have been useless. Mabel looked at him and she was frightened to see his skin pale.

"Mabel… _behind you…"_ he babbled, his voice barely audible. Mabel slowly turned around… and she found herself face to face with  **it.**

She couldn't help but yelp in a panic, stumbling back up until she reached her brother. They grabbed each other and stood where they were, terrified of making any type of movement that could cost them dearly. The Steward, however, didn't do anything at first. It simply observed them from its upper height, studying the twins without giving away its intentions.

That was, until the screech came out.

If the gunfire was deafening, the screech almost drove Tulip out of her mind, but this time she tried her best to not give in to her hurting ears.  _What in the world is going on?!_

She could only see the back of the robot… but even from there, she saw the sudden shift of the light emitted by the flaming eyes of the Steward.

The light was no more blue coloured. Instead, Tulip saw a fiery red lighting up the area all around the machine… including the pair of kids in front of it.

"DIPPER, MABEL! RUN!" the redhead shouted on instinct. She didn't  _think,_  she simply cried the first thing that came to her mind once she realized the great danger the two of them were in. And the twins were fast in following her advice: an instant later they were running for their lives.

Not long after the Pines' escape, the stomping sounds of the metallic tentacles piercing the ground were heard, as the Steward began the pursuit for the stowaways it had come for.

Dipper led the way, with his sister right behind, and they headed for the base of the hill. They had a hard time trying to not lose their balance while running and not begin a disastrous rolling course for the bottom… and it became even harder when the Steward brought its machine guns out once again and started firing them at the fugitives.

Dipper and Mabel screamed as they started zig-zagging, evading the incoming bullets. Only the low-quality aim of the robot helped them not being hit, but the Steward didn't slow down its pursuit.

"Dipper, what now? WHAT?!" Mabel shouted.

"I STILL DON'T KNOW! KEEP RUNNING!" Dipper cried back. He suddenly changed direction, aiming for another hill and hoping for a bit of confusion from their pursuer, but the bullets passing over their heads told him the plan didn't work out as he hoped.

Gritting his teeth, Dipper forced himself to keep his running pace and looked at the approaching hill to notice that there was another set of ruins on the peak as well, a bit more elaborated than the previous one.

"Hold on, Mabel!" Dipper turned around to check her sister and pointed at the structure remains far away. "We'll hide up there!"

"But that thing's going to destroy everything once it gets there, like it just did with the last ones!" Mabel countered.

"I know, but that's all we got! It'll give us some time to think! Follow me!"

They eventually reached the hillside and started climbing up the slope. The Steward stopped moving and aimed at the escaping kids with its machine guns, but when it fired only 'click' sounds came out of the barrels. The robot retracted the weapons back into its eye sockets and gave another, ear-piercing shriek, adding force to the fiery red flames over the white mask. It, thus, dashed towards the slope.

The Pines were enough fast to reach the top of the second hill before the machine could gain too much ground. Panting, they immediately ran towards the remains of what probably used to be a temple of sorts. They burst into the vestibule and ran over the marble floor, passing through various entrances before stopping to an intersection. "There!" Dipper whispered before zooming into a darkened room with his sister close behind, one of the few where the ceiling was still up.

The room was empty, save for a few defiant plants coming out of holes on the floor. Dipper scanned the chamber before going for the nearest corner, sitting down and motioning Mabel to follow him. The girl didn't waste more time and sat down beside her brother, resting her head on his shoulder, and she immediately grabbed hold of him.  _Forcefully._

"Mabel… you're… suffocating… me!" Dipper stuttered.

"Oh! Sorry, sorry! I just…" Mabel eased her grasp a little but didn't let go. "Dipper…  _I'm scared."_

"You're not alone, Mabel. Hear me, this temple is bigger than the previous ruins where we tried to hide in… and it has stopped shooting at us while we were climbing, so it must have run out of ammo. I think we have a chance that it might not be able to find us."

"Why is it so mad at us? Why us and not Tulip?" Mabel asked.

"That's just two of many questions 'Miss Tulip' has to answer. For now, let's focus on not getting caught…"

Thus, the twins kept their mouths shut. For a few seconds, they heard nothing but the ambient noises coming from outside… then, they heard it. The thundering steps of the monstrosity, getting closer and closer.

Mabel forgot her brother's previous protest and tightened her muscles, squeezing the air out of him, but she soon found herself being hugged as well. They waited, as the noises became even closer and they started hearing the noises of structures collapsing and stone crumbling down. Whatever the Steward was doing, it clearly had no care for the preservation of historical landmarks.

Soon, the light emitted by the flames of the machine appeared, lighting up the hallways nearby first, then the entrance to the chamber where the twins were hidden in. Mabel shut her eyes and snuggled closer to Dipper once they saw the walls slowly change colour to red, while her brother tried his best not to start screaming on the spot. The light grew in strength and the two became able to hear the gearwork of inner articulations inside the metal tentacles.

Eventually, the light stopped gaining in intensity, and so did the noises. The Steward had halted every movement, but Dipper and Mabel knew that it was  _very close:_ the newfound silence let them listen to the unmistakable sound of burning fire.

The kids toned down their breaths as much as they could and waited. Ten seconds passed without any type of reaction or act from the Steward. After another ten, something was still yet to happen. Had ten more seconds passed as well, the twins would have simply lost it.

Finally, the Steward moved away from the room. It gave another screech before crashing its way out of the temple in another direction, at least according to the noises the twins heard.

Mabel was still shuddering and she had to fight her anxiety back to open her eyes. She first checked the room before moving her pupils towards her brother. Dipper nodded, and they let go of each other, slowly standing up.

Only to hear more crushing noises.

"What's going on?" Mabel whispered in fear. Dipper immediately realized what was going to happen: without telling her, he abruptly tackled Mabel and threw both of them down. The girl couldn't help letting out a yelp of surprise, but they she'd have understood soon that stealth was no more an option.

With one sweep of multiple tentacles, the Steward destroyed the upper part of the room the twins were hiding in. The stone was literally shot away at high speed and only the bottom of the walls remained where they were.

Dipper and Mabel turned around while still lying down only to find the white mask of the Steward looking at them. They shrieked and scurried to their feet to resume their escape, but this time they had to move through the piles of rubble left by the rampage of the robotic being.

It didn't take long for one of them to make an error. Mabel landed a foot with the wrong angle and her shoe slipped away, making her fall amongst the stone debris. She immediately tried to stand back up, but to her horror she found that one of her legs was stuck between the stone pieces. No matter how hard she tried to pull it away, the limb didn't budge and so didn't the rubble.

"Mabel!" Dipper called, when he looked back and discovered what had happened to his sister. He immediately moved to go to her aid, but the Steward was faster. Its tentacles circled around Mabel, blocking every way of escape, and with a couple of selected appendages it grabbed the girl by her shoulders, immediately lifting her up with no effort whatsoever. The force was enough to free her stuck limb, but the stone was still heavy enough to not move: as a result, Mabel's leg was scraped from the foot up to her thigh.

The scream of pain she let out kicked off every remains of courage left in Dipper. He leaped towards her before the metal monster could lift her too high and grabbed hold of both the tentacles holding her.

"LET GO OF HER!" he shouted, mustering all the strength he had to keep her down. Mabel herself began trying to push the claws holding on her away.

Their efforts proved to be futile.

Dipper was picked up by another pair of cables, pulling him away from Mabel. Moments later, the Steward had hold of both the Pines and it kept them in front of its mask. The expression of the machine was undecipherable, but the kids knew that it was up to no good.

They sincerely thought that there was no way out of this when a saviour came to their rescue. Someone holding a cane courtesy of one of the few trees present around the hills attacked the Steward, swinging the crude weapon at the creature's head. As a result, the mask was ejected open, revealing the inner gearwork to Dipper and Mabel.

The claws opened out and the twins fell down, landing again on the rubble. They quickly stood up, directing their gaze to their unexpected rescuer, and both of them were surprised by the discovery of who  _she_ was.

" _Tulip?!"_

Tulip stood her ground between the twins and the disoriented Steward, which backed up in its dizziness. Her green sweater and backpack were gone, and the upper part of her body was covered by a rather simple white t-shirt.

"Go!" she shouted, not turning around to look at them.  _"Get away!"_

"Hey, wait a second! What you're trying to do?! It'll  _kill_  you!" Dipper was incredulous.

"No, it won't!" Tulip replied, "But it might kill  _you two!_  Get the heck out of here now that it can't see you!"

But the Steward had already recovered from the sudden attack. The mask returned back to its position and the robot looked at Tulip.

" _RETURN TO YOUR SEAT!"_ the machine's voice was no more neutral sounding. The Steward stomped threateningly a couple of tentacles on Tulip's side to add to the effect.

"No, I  _won't!"_  Tulip retorted stoically. "Tell me what I want! Tell me what does this number mean! Tell me  _why the heck you're trying to kill them!"_

"Miss Tulip! You shouldn't annoy it; don't you see it's angry already?" the sense of fear in Glad-One's voice was odd to say the least. One-One had been left back by Tulip, lying on the ground with her backpack and sweater, and he could only watch as she continued to glare at the mechanic beast.

" _Stowaways are not allowed to travel inside the train. They are to be captured and either removed or disposed of,"_ the Steward replied.

Tulip's eyes doubled in size. "What the name of… why would you even need to hunt people this way? What's behind this train!?"

" _They are to be captured and either removed or disposed of… their removal is prioritized over passengers' well-being,"_ the Steward continued, apparently deaf to her questions.

The last sentence made Tulip froze on her tracks. "What… what do you mean?" she stammered.

The Steward didn't answer with words. Tulip heard something whipping through the air, and a spire made of multiple tentacles struck her from the side. The cane flied away along with the glasses and so did the girl, since the force of the hit was so strong that she was sent on a colliding course with one of the few columns of the Greek-Roman temple which were still standing. Tulip hit the marble back-first and fell to the ground, unconscious.

"TULIP!" Mabel and Dipper called together, but their shout only resulted in catching the attention of the Steward. The robot jerked its head upwards to give out another dull screech, but Dipper, having taken hold of Mabel's hand, had already begun to run for it before it even finished to give its call out.

"Dipper, wait!" Mabel said as she unwillingly let him pull her away. "Tulip!"

"We can't do anything! That thing will  _pulverize_  us before we can even reach her!"

"But…!"

"I know, it's not fair, but we there's no way for us to help her right now! I'm sure that bot will look over her!" Dipper's eyes moved beyond Mabel's head and his face contorted as he saw the Steward already on the move.

He looked forward and noticed that they were basically going in circles, already returning to the zone around the first hill. He had an idea.

"We'll go back to the outside; the door should be this way!" Dipper commanded. Still holding her sister's hand, he ran around the hill they had been over minutes before and quickly headed for the door they had went through. The Steward was closing in and Mabel was beginning to lose strength, her leg aching more and more as she continued to run. Only the pull of her brother prevented her from falling.

They finally reached the door. Dipper slammed it open and shoved himself and Mabel in. He barely managed to shut it before one of the Steward's claws could seize him.

Mabel and Dipper walked back as they heard the tentacles slam on the door from the inside. Apparently, the motion triggered a mechanism, because they saw latches suddenly coming out of the metal surrounding the edge of the door and come over it. As the attempts of the robot from inside to turn the doorknob proved useless, they knew that the Steward had been sealed in... for now.

"It's… it's trapped inside?" Mabel said with uncertainty.

"Yes… I hope," Dipper said. He turned towards her and gave an inquisitive glance to his sister's leg. "Mabel, are you all right? Can you walk?"

She looked at her scraped leg to see an ugly reddish cut marking the entirety of the limb. As soon as she saw it, the soreness of the injury worsened and Mabel frowned. She, however, didn't let out any yelp; instead, she kneeled and made sure to bend her skirt and sock the best she could in order to not let the fabric rub over the cut more than what was strictly needed.

"I'm good, Dip, I can move," she reassured while standing up. "We'll think about it later. We must make that  _thing_ stop following us  _and_ save Tulip!"

Dipper decided to hide his protests about the second part and went straight to planning mode. "Alright… I don't think that the monster will remain inside for long. Remember that it  _came_ from outside, so I guess it'll either go back from the way it came from or find another one."

"Dipper, that's not helping me keep cool!"

"Well, sorry for stating the truth!" Dipper looked around, checking the two cars' fronts. "We cannot go back to the mirrors' car – It'll surely look for us there if it doesn't find us on this catwalk. Wait… maybe we can use that to our advantage!"

He pointed at an element that was fairly rare on the train: a ladder planted at the right side of the sealed door. "If we get to the other side of this car before it manages to exit, we might be able to fool it and have him go one car behind."

Mabel looked at his brother sure that at least one of them had completely gone nuts, either her hearing things or him coming up with a crazy plan that involved them walking over a train moving at high speed.

"WHAT?!"

"Okay, okay! I'm not willing to get over the roof of a train as fast as a rocket, too, but it's our only chance Mabel!"

Mabel thought about it a little before sighing in defeat. "Okay, I'll do it… but Dipper, you have to promise me something."

"…go ahead."

"Promise me that when the monster goes out of the way, we'll go back inside to check Tulip out and bring her to safety.  _She's saved us._ I don't care how bad she's been acting until now, what she's done with that monster is enough for me to believe that's she's not our enemy and definitely not on Bill's side!"

Dipper didn't expect Mabel to make such a full-frontal request. The image of the redhead had more or less left his mind as they escaped from the Steward for the second time, but now that Mabel directly expressed her will concerning Tulip, Dipper had to admit that she was right. He still had a few doubts about _why_ she had been acting so hostilely towards them, and he had not forgotten how she casually called Bill as a potential ally… yet, there was no way she'd have faced the mechanic monster head-on if she really were an enemy of them.

"Fine, we'll do it, but first we have to move. Come on!"

The twins went for the ladder and started climbing, Dipper leading the way. In half a minute they were both already on the car's roof.

The width of the car's upper part was the same as all the other cars, despite the enormous space that was, in theory, contained inside. Dipper and Mabel, however, didn't regard the oddity too much, since they were too preoccupied with the problem at hand. The car's roof was much less stable than the catwalk, a factor that along with the air turbulences twirling around their bodies made moving over it way harder.

"Don't stop, Mabel! We  _have_ to get through!" Dipper shouted to overcome the noise of the moving train, one hand keeping his hat fixed on his head. Mabel was having slightly bigger problems, since her hair was being whipped and moved in all the possible directions, including over and into her eyes. Even so, the twins continued to go forward, step by step, slowly proceeding towards the other side.

Dipper cringed when he saw some sort of damage on the left side of the carriage. Leaning over the edge a little, he was greeted by a giant hole on the car's side. _This has to be the hole the monster made into the car to get inside earlier. We better hurry…_

"We're almost there, Mabel!" he shouted. He gave a glance to the landscape they were travelling through: an endless wasteland with a few dead trees dotting the place at most. He couldn't even see the end or start of the train itself. Then, he returned his focus to the task at hand: they were already past the halfway of their walk. "Just a little more!"

Yet, as they continued to move, Mabel and Dipper felt the roof under them vibrate. Then, one of the tentacles shot up from the hole and landed on the car's roof, piercing into the metal.

_No, no, no, no!_

Before Dipper could even motion her sister to quicken the pace up, the Steward lifted its full body onto the car's roof with one, smooth move. Once it saw the Pines, the robot halted and the kids saw a few of the tentacles returning back into the hole, in what looked like an attempt at a retreat. Soon, though, the machine emitted another threatening screech, and began moving towards them.

Mabel and Dipper stumbled back and they started to crawl away, too scared to even think to stand up in the windy conditions. They noticed, however, that the Steward itself seemed to be having a few problems in maintaining its position on the roof: it used way more tentacles and claws to keep itself adherent to the metal than it did before. It was slower… but it was still faster than them.

Dipper continued to move desperately as the Steward got nearer. He didn't know what they were going to do once they got down, but he sure didn't want to be captured right here. Her sister wasn't doing any better, as her aching leg reduced her maximum speed more than she would have liked. Dipper looked left and right, in search of whatever idea could get him and Mabel out of this.

The train was currently proceeding through a soft turn: thus, dozens of train cars were visible from Dipper's point of view, along with what was beside them as well.  _The trees!_ he thought as he looked at a couple of dead trees leaning very close to the train's side far away, to the point that the branches sometimes scraped the moving metal. The germ of a plan grew in his mind… it was going to be dangerous, sure. Yet, they  _needed_  a way to repel the robot. He knew he didn't have the time to worry about safeness right now.

"Hey! You!" Dipper shouted, gaining the immediate attention of the Steward. Mabel looked at him, confused by his behaviour, and she was even more puzzled when Dipper shoved his hat into her hands. His next words changed her confusion into horror: "Aren't you a war robot or something? Because I'm a little surprised you aren't even able to keep your stance up here! Ha, a  _scrappy war robot,_ I'd say!"

Whether the Steward was offended or not remained a mystery, but the machine began closing to him, exactly what Dipper wanted it to do. The boy slowly moved back as he continued shouting his attempts at insults: "Tell me, mecha-Medusa of sorts, how many 'stowaways' did you miss because of your elephant-tier elegance?"

"Dipper! What on earth are you  _doing?! Are you crazy!?"_ Mabel yelled.

Her brother didn't answer, but he made a zipping motion with his hand over his mouth.  _Keep quiet._

"But… but…" Dipper looked at her with what looked like a reassuring gaze. She wasn't sure… but Dipper had a plan, and she had to let him do his thing. She was unwilling to let him lure the machine to himself, but if she had known something about Dipper, it was that he wasn't the type of guy who would simply give up. He wasn't just protecting her… he knew what he was doing.

She hoped he did.

She bit her lip and nodded, sitting down and watching as the Steward got closer to Dipper. The boy continued to call the robot names until they were almost at the far edge of the car: he was almost in range of the tentacle's length by now.

Dipper looked at Mabel once again with a resolved frown. His face was telling her to keep quiet, that no matter what was going to happen, she had to not catch the machine's attention. Mabel's wavered for a moment before nodding once again, confirming that she was in.

Dipper made a thumbs-up signal before moving down a little over the side's edge with one leg. Mabel had to put her hands over her mouth to stifle the shriek.

He continued to move downwards until he was practically dangling with his hands. The car had no windows, so he had nothing to place his feet on, nor any plan B in case he slipped. It was only his arms keeping him from falling to his doom.

"What are you waiting for?! Are you scared to come down here, can-head?" Dipper taunted again, hoping that the Steward would hear him. His arms were already starting to get sore, and he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to keep the grip on the roof's edge.

Soon enough, though, the Steward's mask appeared. The robot moved right behind Dipper, clinging itself to the car's surface but with most of its body suspended in the air, away from the space over the rails, and it bent until its face was looking right at the hanging boy.

"Okay… now I'm impressed," Dipper had to say as the Steward stared at him. The red-coloured flames were so close that droplets of sweat came down his forehead.

"However, you're still gullible!" Dipper exclaimed, smiling mockingly. The Steward didn't react, but even the emotionless robot couldn't simply ignore the giant tree log that crashed into it.

The robot lost hold of almost all its claws, and it even lost a couple of tentacles which remained attached to the train, hanging to the wind and sending electric sparks all around. The tree wasn't enough to stop it altogether since the dead plant was uprooted from the impact, but the Steward had to shut its claws onto the metal plates of the train multiple times before it managed to get hold again of the moving vehicle and save itself from a disastrous fall.

"Mabel, help!" Dipper said as he tried to lift himself up. The girl's face appeared right away and she helped him get over the roof. When they were both over it and Dipper was handed his hat back, they looked at the crippled robot: sparks fizzing all over its body and the mask unrecognizable, it had seen better days for sure… but it was still alive.

"I think it won't work a second time," Dipper said. "Thank goodness that thing wasn't programmed to check everything around it before making a move."

"I'm sure not going to let you do that again!" Mabel scolded. "Let's get into the car below us, snatch Tulip and leave that thing before it repairs itself, resurrects or whatever!"

"Agreed."

"I disagree!"

Dipper and Mabel almost lost their balance as the third voice interjected into their conversation. "One-One!?"

"Hello, Miss Mabel! Hello, Dipper!" Glad-One saluted as he approached the kids from the other side of the car. He had apparently no difficulty in moving over the roof. "I'm happy to see you both still in one piece!"

"A rather surprising outcome, I'd add," Sad-One commented sombrely.

"How did you even manage to come over here?" Dipper asked in disbelief.

"Oh, it was nothing! I just followed the path of destruction!" Glad-One explained happily. "The door's security latches were already opened by the time we got there, if that's what's worrying you! It was a little difficult to get the door to move and them climb over the ladder by ourselves, true, but after those tiny obstacles we were done!"

"But… but what about Tulip, One-One?" Mabel asked. She was a little preoccupied by the possible answer.

"Miss Tulip has yet to leave us for a better place," Sad-One replied. "She was the one who sent us here."

"Then she's okay, I guess. But if that's so, where is she now?" Dipper said.

"Uhh… she needed a little pause to ponder over the tiny itch on her back!" Glad-One explained. Dipper and Mabel looked at each other and they both understood what Glad-One really meant with that.

"That's of secondary importance, according to her words. She wants you to  _not_ escape from the machine you've angered with your presence."

…

"Are you sure Tulip didn't hit her head or something?" Dipper asked.

"She was one-hundred-percent serious!" Glad-One confirmed. "She's said that our  _poor_  friend will not leave you alone, no matter what!"

"Well, Tulip didn't know that we gave him a piece of its mind, though!" Mabel said. "Look at it!"

One-One turned around to see the Steward climbing back over the train's roof. His movement was best described as a stumbling, but other than that it was still  _continuing_ its pursuit. The eyes continued to burn with fiery red flames and the remaining tentacles continued to carry the body of the machine forward.

"As you can see, despite the damage it is still trying to achieve its objective," Sad-One muttered, with Dipper and Mabel not believing their eyes. That robot was stubborn!

"Miss Tulip believes that the only way to drive him away is  _us,"_ Glad-One informed. "Grab us, huddle together and show us to the robot!"

"Wah- wait, that was the solution all this time? Why didn't she try to use you right away then?!" Dipper said.

"I don't know, maybe she wanted to play the hero!" Glad-One said.

"Or maybe she panicked herself and did the first thing she thought of, and only now she's had a moment to recollect her thoughts and plan something up," Sad-One replied with a far more probable explanation.

"I'm still not willing to do it! We can easily outrun that thing now!" Dipper argued. "Why should I believe her now?"

"Miss Tulip also said that she's  _sorry._  She asks you to believe her… even if only this once," Glad-One said.

"And she also said that leaving the machine leave by itself may be better for our own safety in the future… if there was any to start with, that is," Sad-One ended.

"Dipper… I think we need to try to follow her advice," Mabel said.

"No, no! That's stupid! Trying to destroy it, now that's something I'd try to do! Why would it simply turn around and leave us alone just because of Tulip's bipolar bot?"

"Because it already  _did so_  before _,_  when Miss Tulip met it for the first time," Sad-One said without interest.

Dipper turned around to look at One-One, before giving another glance at the slowly approaching Steward. He recalled, back when the monster broke into the car and encountered them, it had ignored Tulip while One-One was right on her backpack. And he recalled how it had mercilessly smacked her away when she had tried to slow him down,  _without_ One-One by her side.

_Gah, it might really work._

Mabel took the initiative by grabbing One-One, half-happy and half-terrified by the action, and went to Dipper's side. "Bro, listen. I know I sometimes have the wrong opinions about people… but I feel like Tulip knows what she's doing. We can  _trust_ her now… after all that's happened, I think she's earned it."

Dipper groaned. "Okay, okay… I'm sure going to get you in the afterlife Mabel in case we die, though!"

"That sounds like something One-One would say…" Mabel said.

"Well, spending time with weird talking robots can really put your mind to test, you know!" Dipper justified.

"I'd put my focus less on arguing about me and more on the towering machine upon us," Sad-One said.

The Steward was over them. The mangled mask still looked threateningly despite the damage, and the machine looked ready to go for the attack. Dipper and Mabel huddled together and the latter extended her arms, showing One-One to the mechanical creature.

"Hello!" Glad-One waved at the Steward, impossibly oblivious to the danger. The Steward looked at him, and for thirty, long seconds nothing happened.

Then, the Steward's flames suddenly stopped burning, and a moment later they resumed to come out of its eyes… but they were now blue-coloured.

The machine turned around and stumbled away from the twins. As it passed over the catwalk's space and started walking over the previous car, Dipper and Mabel accepted the fact that yes, Tulip's plan had somehow worked and the machine had let them be.

Whether that was for good or not was something neither them nor One-One could know for sure.


	5. Shame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've thought a lot about where I wanted to go with this story. I wasn't sure whether I needed to make it longer or not… but the reality is, I don't want to end up getting entire chapters made of filler segments that do nothing to bring the plot forward and might not even be that good compared to the rest of the fic. I tried once doing something like that with another story of mine and that didn't work out as well as I hoped, so I'm not doing the same mistake twice.
> 
> Therefore, the final length of seven chapters I expected back when I posted chapter 1 is confirmed, and with this one we're two chapters away from the end. Thanks for the support of the few people reading this little story and for your comments!

_Bill had been trying his best… he didn't want to lose his temper. He really didn't._

_But, apparently, destiny wasn't on his side on this one. He looked at the Pines in shock as the lovely nightmare machine which had been hunting them up until that moment turned away and simply left, without explanations. Soon, his confusion was replaced by fury._

_Yet, before he could double in size and start zapping things around him, he suddenly froze. What was he doing? This was just a minor setback, one he could take care of. This dimension wasn't as suitable for his needs as he thought it could be, yes, and he acknowledged he had made a couple of mistakes in his initial analysis of the unlimited train. But that was the past._

_Bill knew what he had to do now. He would have to take matters into his own hands and… add his own spice to the dimension. By using his peculiar ideas and abilities, the demon would make sure that the young Pineses' travel through the dimension came to a definitive, and maybe grisly, end that would mark them for the rest of their lives._

_And, while doing that, he swore to himself he'd give Glowing Number the punishment she deserved for messing his plans up. No matter she didn't know she was doing so, no one who had somehow hindered Bill's scheming had been left unscathed… and Pine Tree's and Shooting Star's new companion was not going to be an exception._

_Time to get weird._

* * *

In what seemed to be a genuine night, Dipper and Mabel sat on the ground in front of a tiny campfire, side by side. Dipper had both hands on the ground, supporting his back as he leaned on them, while Mabel rested her head on her knees.

The two of them were looking at a certain someone on the other side of the campfire. The little flames coming out of the few burning wood pieces previously gathered by them weren't enough big to obstruct their view, so they were fully able to watch Tulip's figure. She was sitting likewise, but leaning on a tree trunk and with her face covered by her hands. Whatever was going on in her mind at the moment was a mystery to both Dipper and Mabel.

A couple of hours before, the Steward had left Dipper, Mabel and One-One on the roof of the Greek Ruins car. Once the confusion given by the machine's unexpected behaviour had worn off, the group had proceeded to return back inside the train car. There, it took them no more than five minutes to find Tulip, thanks to One-One's indications.

Dipper and Mabel found a very different behaving person from the Tulip they were used to. Their questions regarding her current state and health went mostly unanswered, and she ignored them even when they thanked her for sending One-One to their aid. Tulip simply kept an unmovable frown on her face, alternatively shaking or nodding her head whenever the Pines asked her about something she could answer with a 'yes' or 'no'.

When she finally talked, she only said a haste "let's get going" after picking up One-One and her backpack. Dipper and Mabel didn't fail to see how her walk was struggled and more comparable to a limp, but the redhead denied all their offers of help. Tulip persisted in her wobbling stride and she gave up only after reaching the door that brought to the next car, when one of her legs ceded and she almost fell. Dipper offered himself to carry the backpack while Mabel took hold of One-One (without asking him beforehand, of course), and Tulip passively let them do what they wanted.

Thus, they left the place of the first encounter with the Steward and entered the successive car, one which they immediately recognized as another exception to the regular laws of volume limitations. The landscape there, though, was far different from the eerie highlands dotted with ancient ruins of the previous one.

The four travellers found themselves in what could only be identified as a true 'taiga' forest. Tall pines and gymnosperm specimen occupied every piece of available area all around them, with heights that held their own compared to the American sequoias. Tulip, One-One, Dipper and Mabel had gone through the forest, full of sounds of nature and living animals unlike the Greek Ruins car, trying to find a way through the maze of giant tree logs. Their trek continued for ten minutes, during which the light, already scarce thanks to the foliage high above them, had started to dim out in favour of an approaching night.

When they stumbled on a rare clearing, Mabel proposed to stop for a short break. Dipper hadn't been keen on the idea at first, but Tulip's silent approval and One-One's excited 'yaas!' had left him outnumbered, and he changed his idea for good when he checked Mabel's bruised leg. After a quick search, the twins had managed to build a decent campfire, just before the night could fully settle in and devoid the forest of any light source.

Thus, Dipper and Mabel found themselves in  **this**  awkward situation. They knew that something was wrong with Tulip, who might not have been talkative but never acted like a straight up mute for the little time they'd known her, but they feared that an inquiry would have resulted in more damage than anything.

Mabel passed a palm over her face, exasperated by the moody behaviour of the redhead across of her. That wasn't a style she liked, not at all… yet, there really was no reason to be happy for her, either. She was away from home, with a bad gash on her leg and a mechanic monster trying to destroy both her and Dipper lurking around. Even she found it difficult to find anything she could be optimist about.

She looked up and stared at the branch web above their heads. Narrowing her eyes, she tried to see if there were any stars at all visible among the needle-shaped leaves… never mind the fact that they were probably fake, just as the sky itself. One minute was all she needed to locate a small light coming through the foliage.

Suddenly, the memory of Gravity Falls and the forest that enclosed the town and her great uncle's humble abode came back to her.

"I miss the shack…" she finally said.

"Huh?" Dipper, immersed in his thoughts, had failed to catch her sentence. Upon hearing them talk, One-One, who had been staying right to Tulip's side until then, trod towards them and around the fire.

"This forest reminds me of Gravity Falls, bro… I wonder what Grunkle Stan is doing…" she let out a yawn.

"If the time inside this thing is the same as in our world, he's probably as asleep as a hibernated bear," Dipper replied. He looked upwards, unconsciously doing the same star research made by her sister seconds before. "I get what you mean, though. I miss the shack and the others, too."

Unbeknownst to them, Tulip had freed her face from her hands and observed them in silence while they continued to talk.

"Grunkle Stan? Sounds like a nice family man!" Glad-One interjected.

"Yeah, right… until he discovers you might be a source of money and captures you to hold as a museum piece for his collection," Dipper muttered, resulting in One-One making a step back in fright.

"Oh, forget about Dipper, he's messing with you. I'm sure you would like to meet my pet pig Waddles, One-One!" Mabel said.

"I am  _soo_  eager to get acquainted with him…" Sad-One said with the gloomiest voice conceivable as his internal CPU processed the image of a giant pig lying over him and squashing him on the ground.

Dipper chuckled. "Heh… I just thought that your sad 'side' would probably get along with Wendy and your happy side with Soos. You'd probably settle in pretty good, actually…"

"I think I'm going to consider your proposal… later," Sad-One dismissed, but Glad-One later added, "Maybe one day we'll visit you all!"

"Yeah… that's an idea…  _after_  we find a way back…"Dipper grumbled. The silence fell again between them, as Mabel didn't have anything to add. They had seen a lot since their arrival there, but nothing other than discovering that they were not welcome inside the train, they still didn't know anything that could help them get back to the Mystery Shack.

The quietness didn't last long, though. Someone sobbed.

Dipper, Mabel and One-One turned around to look at Tulip. No, they had  _not_ imagined it. She was  _crying._

"Miss Tulip?" Glad-One called in concern as he moved back to join her. Dipper and Mabel were unsure of what to do and, for the moment, they remained where they were.

"I-… I am such an-an idiot…" Tulip stammered. She took off her glasses, which had somehow survived the previous encounter, and put them down before burying her face into her knees. "Idiot… idiot!"

"Miss Tulip, please, calm down," Glad-One said. "Tell us how we can help you. What is bothering you?"

"You can't… no one can…" the girl replied, without raising her eyes. "Ugh, f-forget about me, One-One. I… I just mess things up."

"That's a little exaggerated coming from you," Sad-One argued. "Just what would you have done that's so unforgiving?"

"Everything!" Tulip cried, raising her head to look at her little robotic friend, revealing her reddened eyes and wet cheeks. "I was wrong from the beginning, and nothing I've done until now had any sense in it!"

She opened a hand and pointed it towards Dipper and Mabel, who simply listened in stunned silence, while she continued to look at One-One. "I thought they were going to be a hassle more than anything… and instead they basically got us to continue all by themselves… but I didn't see that! No!" Tulip's tone raised in pitch with every word she let out. "I just had to be stubborn and pretend I didn't see any of that!"

"But-" Glad-One attempted to stop her rant, but Tulip wasn't done.

"And you know what? All of this ended up getting all of us almost  _killed!"_ she shouted. "I  _should_ have known that the freaking beast would've been dangerous for them! I  _should_ have known you were the key to drive it away sooner! I  _should_  not have been an  _idiot!_  But… but instead… I-I didn't do any of that, and-…"

Tulip lost the strength needed to talk and burst into tears, leaning back on the tree trunk and hugging her own knees. From her right hand, the number '49' glowed like it always did, with no sign of variations since the last debacle with the Steward.

"I… I just want…" she sniffed. "I want to go  _home…"_

One-One separated himself in its two halves, then Glad-One and Sad-One proceeded to reach the crying girl and bump into her hips. Tulip moved her hands to cuddle the two robotic halves, but otherwise she didn't stop shedding tears.

Dipper was literally hypnotized by the sight. He had learned to consider Tulip as a know-it-all grumpy girl who mostly was impervious to emotions different from annoyance. Seeing her so… broken left the twelve-year-old more than confused.

And, of course, the same could be said for Mabel… with the added fact that she couldn't  _tolerate_ this scene.

"Dipper," she whispered. "We oughta do something…"

"Mabel…" Dipper started, but his sister cut him off.

"No, Dip. We have to  _help_ her, and you'll  _help_ me do it!" Mabel said with decision. "You can't simply pretend nothing's happening!"

"That was not what I was going to say!" Dipper replied indignantly. "I just… I don't know, I don't think she needs  _our_ help. She's just… lost, I guess. She'll get over it."

"She's crying because of  _us,_  Dipper."

"What?! Now you're blaming us?" Dipper was already losing his temper.

"No, wrong meaning! We didn't make  _her_ cry, but… we're the reason she's so hurt."

Mabel stood up. "You know what? Stay where you are if you want. I'm going, and you won't stop me from cheering up the girl who saved our life,  _twice."_

She left the gobsmacked Dipper to his muddled thoughts and in no time she was right in front of the sobbing girl. Mabel grabbed hold of a lock of hair and twiddled with it for a few seconds, mustering the confidence needed to address the problem at hand.

"…Tulip?"

Tulip looked up and stared at Mabel. "W-what?" she wheezed out.

"Tulip, I, uh… no,  _we…_  we're sorry."

Tulip hid her face back behind her knees. "Leave me alone, Mabel."

"No, I mean it!" Mabel insisted, "We didn't realize how this train worked from the very beginning and we should've been more watchful of your words. We-…"

"Mabel, please… I don't want to hear your excuses. I  _messed up,_ and there's no doubt about it. You and Dipper just did what you felt was right, and I was too blinded to see it… idiot… stupid, dumb girl!"

Mabel made a step back as Tulip growled, her fingers digging into her cheeks. "Why won't this train let me do something right for once? Why am I even stuck here?!"

"Miss Tulip…" Glad-One attempted to catch her attention with no results.

"I did all of this,  _all of it,_ to have something to look forward to… in the last few hours I've seen more than any of the previous days combined… and  _look!"_ she looked at her hand, and the '49' looked back, mocking her with its unmodified appearance.  _"Nothing!"_

Tears continued to stream down her cheek. "I-I am no nearer to find a solution to whatever this train hides… all I managed to do was getting you two in trouble..."

Mabel breathed in a gust of air, relaxing her muscles. Then, she moved forward, seized Tulip's shoulders and shook until the girl was forced to look at her. "Wha…?" Tulip, dazed by the action, didn't realize right away what was going on.

"Now you listen here!" Mabel commanded, shushing the downcast girl. "You  _may_ have made a mistake or two here, but you can't blame yourself for everything!"

"Miss Mabel is right, Miss Tulip," One-One intervened with its happier voice. He had not abandoned Tulip's sides for one second. "True, you weren't exactly friendly with them all the time, but you were simply nervous and cautious. That's not something one would consider to be an error."

Mabel nodded. "Besides, me and my brother went a little over-the-top, too. We were a little worked up by the guy who got us here in the first place and all, but after everything that's happened I know there was no reason to be so distrustful!"

Tulip bit her lip as the tears slowed down their flow out of her eyes. "I… I know that," she admitted, wiping her face off with a sleeve of her sweater, sniffing. "But that doesn't change what's happened with the 'beast'. I had all the elements, from back in Corginia all the way to the Riddle-Maker – I should've seen the danger!"

"That would have required an amount of focus and concentration you simply didn't have at the time, frankly," Sad-One pinpointed. "Not to mention that you had no way to believe that the machine would appear anytime soon."

"…ugh," Tulip failed to find a flaw in Sad-One's logic that could help her rebut his claim. "When did you become so good at discussions?"

"You'd be amazed by how his programming works, Miss Tulip! It's like a whole new dimension!" Glad-One chirped.

Tulip groaned… and a ghost of a smile appeared on her face. Mabel smiled as well, and made a mental note to thank One-One later.

"See what I mean, Tulip-girl?" she resumed her speech. "We were all more or less on the edge and acted like we shouldn't have. So, everyone made an error and, since we all know it by now, there's no need to sit down and mope around doing nothing constructive!"

Tulip considered Mabel's words. "I know that, too. It's that… I'm sick of trying to move forward without getting anything back… even worse if my decisions end up having  _this_ kind of result…" she said, giving a look to Mabel's bruised leg. The injury wasn't that serious, thankfully: the already slow blood flow out of the reddish lines had long since stopped, and the lines themselves were already darkening in colour.

"You know… that's funny," a voice said. It wasn't Mabel, nor was it any of the two voices of One-One. Dipper stood right to the side of her sister: Mabel yelped in alarm and fell to the side. "What the heck, Dipper! I didn't know you could be that silent when walking!"

Dipper ignored her for once and kept his eyes fixed on Tulip. "I've been in a similar situation, Tulip. Well, similar except for the Journal: the map that guided me through the mysteries of the town me and Mabel have been spending the summer in…" he said, a hand going under his waistcoat looking for a certain book that was not there. "After a full month of search and adventures I had seen a lot, but I was no nearer to understanding the  _cause_  behind all of that. One day I thought it was just going to remain like that: me seeing weirder and weirder things I had no idea how to explain… but then things happened. Gideon happened.  _Bill happened…"_

He thought about how the hidden information on the Journal that he could now read through thanks to the blacklight let him see the town from a completely new point of view. He remembered how from that little improvement he managed to get nearer and nearer to the answers he sought. From the bunker of the Author to the revelation of McGucket's previous identity…

So close… to the point of having Bill try to stop him, first by turning him and Mabel against each other… and then now, by shoving them into this strange dimension.

"The town proved me that all I had seen until then was just the beginning… even now I am still trying to find a definitive answer to everything that's been going on in Gravity Falls," Dipper continued as Tulip listened attentively to him. "Maybe, Tulip, you  _are_  getting closer to what will open your eyes to the mysteries that are behind this, this… uhh… this  _train of infinite._  And when you'll finally find it, then that number will finally have its place in the full scheme of things… just like I realized there was more to the Journal than a simple diary."

Mabel had recovered from the shock of Dipper's sudden appearance, and she finally stood up beside her brother. "And I'm one-hundred-percent sure that you'll do it! I mean, say what you want but you faced that monster  _head on_ with a stick as your only weapon! If that's not rad, I don't know what it is! And considering that  _Dipper_  managed to learn more about all the shenanigans he's so passionate about, how can't  _you_ do the same?"

"Hey!" Dipper protested, but Mabel simply started to poke him with a finger: "Aw, don't be so touchy! It's true!"

Dismayed and annoyed, Dipper tried to fight back… with pathetic results, of course. Yet, he was visibly trying to smother laughter.

They were  _both_  trying to not give in to giggles, actually, since they had just ended a serious conversation, but they soon found out that it was fair too hard for them to do so. Their laughter eventually erupted, with Dipper laughing because of his sister tickling him more than anything, but they indeed were both sincere in their delight.

Tulip felt something new come up her throat. It wasn't a sob _._  She tried to stifle it down like the twins, and like them she failed to do so. Dipper and Mabel immediately stopped their playful brawl when they heard her let out a chuckle.

"Ha… hahaha!" Tulip laughed like she never did before, earning the befuddled gazes of the twins. Even One-One moved away from her, scared from her sudden burst, and reunited its two halves. "I guess I'll have to write the declaration of her mental insanity…" Sad-One muttered.

"I… haha… oh, my…" Tulip forced herself to calm down. She wiped off a couple of tears from her face… tears of laughter. "I… sorry about that… but I couldn't hold it in. I…" she passed a hand through her hair while looking at Dipper and Mabel. "I needed that. Thank you."

Mabel exhibited herself in the most joyful grin in her repertoire… while still sitting over a downed Dipper. "Gee, don't mention it!"

"Mabel…"

"Huh? Oh, sorry Dippy-Dip!" Mabel quipped, finally standing away from her brother and letting him reclaim use of his lungs. "Anyhow, Tulip, I guess you've seen that there's no reason to give up, didn't you?"

"Mmh-mmh," Tulip mumbled. She picked her glasses back up, put them on and stood up. "I… I probably was a little overcome by everything that's happened lately. That doesn't excuse me from my behaviour, though."

"Ahh, don't worry, we forgive you! Right, Dipper?" Mabel said, giving an elbow to her poor brother who had just managed to get up on his own legs.

"Ow! Mabel!" he glared at her, then he sighed in defeat. "Yes, we do, we do… From now on, though, no secrets or lies or whatnot. If we want to help each other, we need to work together."

"Your wish is my wish, bro!" Mabel affirmed, going off to 'prepare'… what she was going to prepare, she had no clue, but she thought it was cool to leave for the scene. Dipper decided to not question her and gave another look at Tulip, who kept her smile… if only a little less convinced than before.

"Tulip, I just wanted to say that… I misjudged you," Dipper admitted, lowering his gaze and turning around. "I thought you were either a double-crosser or a selfish guy… but I guess you're just unlucky. Sorry about that… come to think of it, we're more similar than I'd have thought."

When Dipper directed his face back towards Tulip, he found that she had approached him: her face was centimetres away for his. A bit  _too_ close for his comfort.

"Heh… and  _I_  guess you're right," Tulip said. "You know, a friend of mine once told me that, sometime, you just have to be patient and hold on… because, sooner or later, something arrives and makes you move forward."

She put a hand over Dipper's shoulder. "Atticus was right. I was ready to stop and simply abandon everything, when the beast appeared, ignored me and started to chase you two. That, somehow, struck a chord inside me, and before I knew it I was  _chasing_ it myself to help you. I… I think that you and your sister reminded me of  _why_  I haven't given up yet, Dipper. And for that, I'm thankful."

That said, Tulip finally let Dipper go, who was petrified by her confession. She simply continued to keep her weak, but fixed, smile on her face and shrugged at his reaction. "Come on, One-One," she called, "we don't want to waste more time than needed."

"Happy to see you happy again, Miss Tulip!" Glad-One tweeted while climbing into Tulip's backpack.

"I almost miss your moping persona," Sad-One said. "Almost."

"I take that a compliment," Tulip replied, picking up her backup and putting it on her back. "All right, from what direction did we…  _wait…"_

Tulip scratched her eyes. "Wha-… why is everything without  _colour here?"_

Her exclamation immediately made Dipper jump back to reality and Mabel forget her thoughts regarding how to put out the campfire. "Without  _colour!?"_ they blurted out together.

"Yes! Take a look. Hey, do you know something about it?" she asked, turning around to look at them, One-One leaning over from her face's side. Dipper and Mabel didn't answer: they walked towards her, passed her and stared at the spectacle.

The side of the forest they were looking at had completely lost any type of colour. Granted, a taiga forest wasn't exactly comparable to a Japanese garden to begin with, but the only colours Dipper and Mabel could see right then were different graduations of grey. The trunks, the leaves, the undergrowth, everything had lost its colours. A couple of nocturnal birds flied through the forest, their beaks moving as they sang, but none of them heard any type of sound coming out of the two animals. Even the night had not been spared: the greyed forest was illuminated by a dim light all through, with no variations whatsoever in the illumination.

Mabel and Dipper looked back towards Tulip just in time to see the campfire behind her suddenly cease burning as soon as the front of the grey-zone touched the wood. Tulip herself raised an eyebrow, puzzled by the gazes of the twins as they moved their eyes towards her with tense gazes.

"Yes, we do… unfortunately," Mabel said gravely.

"Tulip…  _Bill_  is here," her brother said.

"…Bill? As if, the Bill you've been talking about until now?"

The twins nodded and looked forward. "He's here for us, no doubt." Dipper took a long breath.

"We have to confront him."

"Dipper…" Mabel timidly said, "Are you sure…?"

"We have no choice. We  _can't_ go back… and even if we did, Bill might just move to meet us. We may as well go and get it over with."

Mabel nodded, but Dipper's word did nothing to curb her fear. What did, though, was the feeling of his hand taking hold of hers.

"Together, Mabel," Dipper said as he and his sister looked right into each other's eyes. And, suddenly, Mabel didn't feel fear anymore.

Before they could start their march into Bill's dominion, though, Tulip beat them on time. The redhead moved forward, overtaking them and walking into the greyed-out zone.

"Tulip?" Mabel called, confused by her initiative.

"You've done more than enough, today," she said, without stopping her walk. "It's time for me to meet 'Bill' and have a little talk with him."

Mabel and Dipper scurried behind her. "Tulip, I don't want to sound rude, but you have no idea what kind of deceit master Bill is!" Dipper protested.

Tulip didn't slow down, unperturbed by his words, with One-One still on her back keeping an eye on the area around them. She had already located the door that led to the next train car: apparently, the zone which lost colour was centred around it.

"You've told me enough," she said to the twins walking behind her, "but in any case, he  _has_ changed the course of everything that's happened in the last few cars. I have the  _right_ to know what he has to say and why he's chosen this of all these dimensions, as you called them."

In no time, Tulip reached the door to the other side, greyed out as well and embedded into a giant pine trunk. She didn't hesitate to open it.

Instead of the usual noise of the moving train over the rails, the catwalk was uncannily quiet. The train was still moving fast, but the group heard nothing but silence.

Tulip moved over the catwalk and stopped in front of the second door. Something was different about it: on its front there was an image depicted, engraved into the metal.

The figure of a triangle encased by a circle. A triangle donned with a hat and a bow tie and equipped with a full set of limbs and one, lone eye. Tulip felt uneasy… she could have sworn that the eye was  _staring at her._

Behind her, Mabel and Dipper had taken notice of the image as well. "Tulip, you must promise us one thing…"

Tulip whirled around and looked at Dipper.

"Promise us that you won't fall for Bill's tricks. Whatever he says, whatever he tells you… You must not  _trust_ him. Please..."

Dipper face brimmed with urgency, while Mabel tried to muster her best puppy dog eyes. Tulip seemed to be lost in deep thought for a second, as she moved her gaze to the scenario to the side of the train. Even the bare terrain was coloured grey, and the desert maintained said colour for a considerable distance.

Then, she looked back at the Pines resolutely. "I promise," she said.

She turned around, grabbed the doorknob and stepped into the unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm particularly proud of how this chapter and the conversation in the middle turned out. I wasn't sure where to go with it, but I think it came out better than I'd have hoped, with a certain equilibrium between the serious parts and the light-hearted moments. At least, that's what I think.
> 
> Next chapter serves as the final climax of this story. I'll try to be as quick as possible in writing it down, so hopefully I'll be able to update soon.


	6. Weirdness Car

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter length exceeds 10'000 words, so take your time to read this part. Sorry about that, but I couldn't bring myself to split this one.

The landscape that Tulip found in front of her left her speechless. All she could do was gape incredulously, unable to express any type of comment.

"Oh…" Sad-One said without much surprise, "…I wanted to write our obituary  _before_  we arrived in  _heck."_

"Nah! I think this might be a nice place! We just have to look for the best part of it!" Glad-One replied.

Dipper and Mabel walked to Tulip's sides, takin in the view as well. "Well, happy hunting then, One-One…" Dipper said. "You're gonna have a bad time finding anything  _nice_ here, I assure you."

Before them, there was the third chamber in a row that didn't respect the size of the car outside. However, there was no natural location here… in fact, it would have been imprecise to define it artificial as well. A word more suited to describe to place may have been  _'weird'._

All around Tulip, Mabel and Dipper there was… absolutely nothing. The only obstacle that didn't let them fall into the depths below was a stone platform, over which the door was located and that marked a path into the space in front of them. Ahead of them they could see more stone platforms hovering around, big and small alike, while a road connected a series of the bigger platforms, constituting the path that had been set for them to follow. Apart from the stone platforms, all devoid of any colour sans grey, nothing solid was found in the 'car': all the group could see in the distance was an eerie background made out of twisting cloud-like forms that irregularly changed colour. Now they were purple, now they were yellow, now they were blue.

"Huh. I expected worse, actually… maybe Bill's having some creativity problems?" Dipper commented after a minute of silence.

"It does look like our nightmare, though… I don't like this place. I don't like how it  _sounds…_ " Mabel said, her eyes moving quickly around her in search of possible threats. The only noise hearable was a dull ambience noise that didn't seem to be influenced by distance. It changed its pitch along with the colours of the sky around them, adding to the bizarre atmosphere.

"Well, at least it isn't grey coloured as the stone! It even changes over time! Isn't that sweet?" Glad-One tried to raise the mood, but for once he had to stay silent when both Dipper and Mabel glared at him. Thus, they remained silent, in wait for Tulip to add her own thoughts to the discussion… but the redhead didn't speak.

"Tulip?" Dipper called after an entire minute of silence, looking at the girl with an interrogative gaze. Tulip opened her eyes wide in surprise and shook her head, clearing her momentarily distracted mind. "Oh… sorry, guys. I… I was a little taken aback by all of this. I've never seen something like this… not even in the strangest cars I've visited inside the train."

"Believe me, Tulip. If this is really Bill's design, it'll take you five minutes at most to feel the need to leave this place as soon as possible."

Tulip looked at Dipper with a raised eyebrow. "Since when did you become so pessimistic?"

"Huh? Hey, I'm always pessimistic! Wait, that doesn't sound good… ugh, why do I even try to speak sometimes…!"

Tulip rolled her eyes and checked Mabel to see that a weak smile had appeared on her face. She winked at her, an act that only resulted in making the smile wider.

_Uh, yes… I might be starting to like them. And to think I used to consider them little more than annoying burdens…_

Deciding that daydreaming wasn't going to bring her anywhere, she looked forward and let out a sigh. "Okay… we may as well get moving. Bill or non-Bill, I still want to get to the next car and keep moving, and I sure won't stop here."

She began her stroll, One-One looking ahead from the top of her backpack as she marched through the pathway represented by the stone-made road linking the various platforms. Dipper and Mabel gave a glance to each other before they began following Tulip in her trek.

They walked along the path for a few minutes, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Nothing out of the ordinary caught Tulip's interest apart from the general weirdness of the place: platforms floated and rotated around her as the void continued to change colours. "One-One, do you see anything worth checking out?" Tulip asked. "I know you have better eyes than me."

"Not  _that_ much better, I'm afraid," Sad-One replied. "I do see a larger rock formation further ahead, though."

Tulip mechanically brought a hand over her eyes – she didn't really need it – and tried to pinpoint what the bot was referring to. And, indeed, she saw that they were getting nearer and nearer to a rocky floating island. "Guess that's where we're heading to."

"And where Bill's waiting for us, I bet," Dipper added. "Tulip… be careful."

She shot an annoyed glance at him. "I think I already know that, but thank you," she muttered, making him suddenly look down to hide his face behind the visor.

Tulip sighed and, after glancing at an equally nervous Mabel for a second, she looked towards the island. Their walk continued for another minute without any disturbances whatsoever.

Then, she started to hear something.

"Is there someone… laughing?" she wondered while keeping her pace.

"Not just someone… he's  _really_  there," Mabel responded. Tulip continued to focus on where she was going while One-One turned around to face the twins. Both his personalities had felt how her voice was quavering.

"Oh, I don't believe you have to worry that much, Miss Mabel!" Glad-One said, gaining her attention. "I know you and your funny brother," Dipper raised his face to glare at the bot, who continued nonetheless, "have a lot of reasons to be afraid of this 'Bill' meanie, but I'm sure you'll find a way to confront him!"

Mabel smiled at the little bot's positivity. She really needed someone able to help her optimism out, because she sure didn't feel like that at the moment by herself.

"It'll take more than a few reassurances to take down Bill, One-One," Dipper replied. "You don't know him as much as we do."

"And you don't know Miss Tulip as much as us," Sad-One retorted. "You have  _her."_

Dipper couldn't bring himself to argue with that statement. Tulip herself didn't turn around, but after a few seconds of silence she said, "Uuh… thanks, One-One…"

"Don't mention it, Miss Tulip! It is true!" Glad-One chirped, climbing over her shoulder and looking away from the Pines. Mabel kept her smile on as her brother moved closer to her.

"I know he may have a point, but still… Tulip's just a girl. And we're not in a dream, so imagining made-up weapons won't work here," he whispered. "We won't be able to beat Bill with just a couple of witty remarks."

Mabel shot him a serious look. "Dip, I know you're all about being prepared for everything and all, but don't you think it'd be good to meet him with something in mind better than 'he's gonna destroy us?'"

Dipper opened his mouth to protest before looking away and sighing. "I-I know! I just… I don't want him to trick us again or something. We barely managed to repel him last time."

Mabel turned her head to the other side as well, examining a nearby hovering platform. Remembering what had happened to them back to the puppet opera disaster somewhat bothered her… a little because of how she had found herself in conflict with Dipper, and a little because of how close she had been to let Bill – Bipper, in that case, – achieve his goal.

Thus, she nearly jumped when she felt a hand grabbing hers. She turned around and found him staring right into her eyes.

"Look… sorry about that. I'm a little upset about this entire situation, that's all. You're right, I should think less and be a little more resolute."

Mabel stared back before grinning. "Oh, but don't get used to it, because as much as it'd be cool to see you charge Bill head on with nothing but your hands as weapon, it'd be less cool to see you dusted by him!"

"Uhh-yeah, riiight…" now it was Dipper's turn to be worried by his sister's words, but even so he kept his smile. He was glad to have her by his side.

"Halt," came Tulip's order. The twins complied and moved to her right side to see what had provoked her.

While they were talking, the group had already crossed all of the distance needed to reach the rocky island. They were now over it, right in front of the stone structure that had been erected on the platform: from outside, they couldn't really be sure about what it was, but there was an entrance before them: an arc that brought into the centre of what looked like an arena of sorts, walled up by all sides from the outer stone.

And right in the centre of the 'arena' there was a figure moving. A polygonal one.

Tulip and the Pineses exchanged a fast glance. The girl didn't feel like she needed words: she simply nodded and resumed walking, approaching the glowing yellow triangle who seemed to be having a lot of fun at the moment. Dipper and Mabel stayed close to her, while One-One focused and unfocused its lenses, eager to know what could either be a misunderstood friend like the 'beast' or the being that was going to destroy them all.

When they crossed the arc and the hallway behind and finally moved into the inside arena, Tulip couldn't help but gasp. Yes, Dipper and Mabel had already told her much about Bill. They had been talking about a floating triangle for more time than she'd have liked.

Yet, seeing  _him_ concretely was still a different matter from just listening to a description.

Bill sat on a stone-made throne of sorts. His eye was closed, and he was cackling maniacally, apparently oblivious to the presence of his new guests. "Haha ha! This dimension is gold!" he said with his echoing voice, the yellow glow lighting up and dimming down.

Tulip didn't stop walking right away: she continued to move towards Bill, despite Dipper's muttered protests, until she had a clear view of the dream demon no less than twenty meters away from him. Bill finally stopped to laugh and directed the pupil of his lone eye towards the intruder.

"Oh, great, you've finally arrived!" he greeted with apparent hospitality while looking at Tulip, "Thought you somehow lost your way around here. Sorry about not noticing you – I got lost checking out other cars… man, that was a hoot. I hope you like the looks of the premises – they're quite a fine sight, I'd say. I made them myself, after all."

Tulip furrowed her eyebrows.  _Is this guy serious or what?_

"You know, you actually would have to thank me for doing this. You may have terrible tastes and consider this bad, but before I made this place all this car contained were some burp emitters. You don't want to know how disgusting, and stupid, that was…" he continued, letting out a chuckle.

"Guess that now we may as well start waiting for a spit car at this point," Sad-One said more to himself than anyone. Tulip simply ignored him, keeping her eyes fixed on the demon.

"But I'm digressing! Let's not waste more time than needed and talk business, Glowing Number!" he said. Tulip decided to keep silent, even if she was surprised by the remark… of all the names she expected him to use, she didn't think he'd use  _that._

_He knows about the number? But… but how?_

He hovered away from his throne and approached her before briefly taking his hat off politely. He seemed to be voluntarily ignoring Dipper and Mabel, who worriedly witnessed to their talk in silence. "Name's Bill, but I'm sure you already know that. You should know, red, that you've been quite a… unexpected disturbance to my plans in the last few hours."

Tulip tilted her head. "Unexpected?"

"Unexpected, and  _annoying!"_ he suddenly bellowed, raising his tone in pitch. His size enlarged for a moment and his colour flickered to dark red before turning back to yellow. "I mean, I didn't  _originally_ mean to distract you from your trek, I couldn't care less… but somehow I missed you during my scans of the train before I put my plan into motion."

"May I ask to die quickly?" Sad-One interjected out of nowhere. Tulip looked over to him with a flabbergasted look. "One-One, shut it! Now's not the time!"

Even Bill gave a surprised look to the bot over Tulip's shoulder. "Yeah… that's a bit too fast even for me. I'll just pretend I didn't hear that… as I was saying, all I wanted to do was-"

"She already  _knows_ what you want to do, Bill!" Dipper finally said, after mustering all the courage he had. Bill brought a hand to his front, exasperated by the second interruption. "We told her all she needed to know about you!"

"Yeah! If you're trying to deceive her or something like that, well, good luck on that because you may as well talk with a wall!" Mabel exclaimed.

"I don't recall asking you two about your  _opinion!"_  Bill venomously shot back, rotating 90 degrees around to face them. "You're lucky I didn't zap you into oblivion yet!"

"Well, try us!" Mabel replied, pointing a finger towards the floating triangle. "We're just waiting for you!"

"Mabel!" Dipper protested, "When we talked about being resolute against him, I didn't mean to-!"

Dipper's rambling was halted by Bill: "As you wish, Shooting Star. I have a long series of surprises for you, but I think that an appetizer will keep you busy for a few moments and let me talk with our mutual friend in peace!  _Guys!_  Time's up!"

The pavement of the arena shook as holes appeared all around them. From the blackness of the circles obscure beings of diverse sizes and forms emerged. "I wasn't able to bring everyone, but these cute little pets will do the job!" Bill said.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Tulip shouted, "What are you doing?! They didn't do anything!"

"Oh, but they  _did,_  Glowing Number," Bill said. "You just didn't see it when it happened. Guys… go and play with the kids!"

The creatures finally revealed their faces, exposing horrendous muzzles of all sorts. The only feature shared by them all was a frontal line of sharp teeth… clearly visible thanks to the fact that they all opened their jaws to roar.

Dipper and Mabel just had the time to look at each other for an instant before turning around and starting to run for their lives, screaming all the way.

Bill put his hands on what would probably have been his 'hips', pleased with the spectacle. "And that's done! Finally, some peace…"

"What kind of  _freak_ are you?!" Tulip spluttered. She was so flabbergasted that her body shuddered, with One-One barely able to keep his hold on her shoulder. "Are you trying to-… to  _kill_  them?!"

"No, no, not seriously at least… not yet, hehe…" Bill chortled. "But that's not important… you're the real problem here, Glowing Number."

"But… why… how… argh!" Tulip covered her ears, trying to focus. "This doesn't make any sense! How am I even the 'real problem'? I was doing my thing, travelling around… and then I stumble on the two of them! How do I have anything to do with all of this? With you?"

"In a lot of ways, red. Say, if you had just continued to move on and left them behind earlier, I wouldn't have had anything to say against that!" Bill explained. "You would've kept doing what you were doing, and I'd have kept minding my own business. But no! You had to wake them up and take them along with you! You had to help them once they started having problems with this dimension! You and your double-minded bot had to intervene even when something interesting finally happened and you saved them from that cowardly octopus!"

"Hey! I wanted to help!" Glad-One protested. "Not to mention, our giant friend wasn't coward or anything – I'm sure there's simply a big misunderstanding between us all!"

Tulip didn't even try to scold One-One, but she kept her focus on Bill, who continued to float around her, changing position every now and then. "Hm, fat chance of that. All I know is that you've been quite a distraction and that must end did you even take the Pines with you, Glowing Number? I  _know_ you didn't want to at first…"

The knowledge the demon seemed to own was staggering. "I… I don't know. I'm – I'm not evil like you apparently are!" Tulip said hesitantly. "I just- I want…"

"You want to go home. That's what you were going to say."

Tulip's eyes widened. "What!? How do you know all of this?!"

"Oh, Glowing Number… I see and hear  _everything,"_ Bill rotated its body in front of Tulip as he talked, "and I didn't need to look that deep to realize what your biggest desire is. And, heck, listen to this: I might even be able to put aside my gripe against you and help you out!"

"Help…  _me?"_ Tulip found herself gaping at him. No matter how every aspect of this situation told her to be wary… she  _wanted_ to hear what he had to say.

"Sure thing, red! I'll tell you what, I'm not even going to ask that much from you. You just have to stop helping Pine Tree and Shooting Star and…" he brought a hand to the lower part of his eye and looked away for a moment thoughtfully before resuming his speech, "do another tiny favour for me. Nothing special, I assure you, you have my  _honourable_ word! And in exchange for your help, you might get something far more valuable… something like… what's behind that ' _nuuuumbeeeer'…"_

Instinctively, Tulip's gaze shifted to her right palm. The '49' glowed green was still there, making fun of her with its immobility as always. "You… you couldn't…"

"I could, and can!" Bill asserted, extending his hands outward and agitating his black stick. "I am Bill Cipher, Glowing Number. I might not know everything about this dimension, but I didn't know yet where or what to look for… something that you  _do!_  You just have to trust good ol' Bill and shake my hand… you'll have gotten yourself a deal that might open your eyes about what's really behind this- whatcha call it? I'm not sure… hmm, I got it. This  _train of infinite!"_

Tulip considered Bill's words. He wasn't simply offering her information. He was offering her  _everything_ she had wanted during the days of her journey, since when she had found herself trapped inside the Infinity Train. Definitive explanations about her number… just a handshake away from her. Most probably, Bill could help her understand everything else as well: the cars, the inhabitants she had encountered until now, the beast, why the train was moving in the first place and where it was going. Everything… including how to return back home.

"…Miss Tulip?" Glad-One's voice said, pulling Tulip away from her thoughts. The girl looked at him with the intention to reprimand the bot, but the words died in her throat once she saw  _how_ he was looking at her. True, One-One didn't have too much to express himself as far as face features went, but Tulip had learned to know him before meeting the Pines. She could see that his 'eyes' were looking at her… scanning her. Trying to understand what she was feeling right now. Trying to  _warn_ her.

They heard a scream nearby, and Tulip's gaze moved towards Dipper and Mabel as they continued their escape from Bill's minions. The creatures were very close from catching the twins apparently… but they had not been able to seize them yet.

"Oh, for crying out loud! Keep them away from us, that's all you have to do you idiots!" Bill thundered, making a few of the demons cower in fear. "Get a move on yourself before I decide to annihilate you along with them!"

He returned his gaze to Tulip. "Sorry about the interruption. So… what do you say, red? Do you want to remain ignorant about everything, to keep yourself from learning the truth? Or do you want to actually stand up and finally discover the real reason behind that little number, huh?"

One of his black arms suddenly flared up with blue flames, which quickly moved to his hand. Thus, Bill offered it to Tulip, waiting for her decision.

The girl was torn inside. Her right hand twitched as she pondered over her decision, biting her lip and scratching her eyes with her left hand.  _Oh, what in the… I… I just can't… he's…_

She couldn't refuse that easily. Bill wasn't simply offering her the solution for a couple of riddles _._ She just had to shake his hand and then she'd have every piece of information available about the train. No more mysteries. No more strange riddles and tests to solve and pass. No more travelling without even knowing where you were doing.

Just her, the solution… and a way out of the Infinity Train.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Mabel and Dipper tumbled between her and Bill, startling the both of them. The monsters who had been chasing the Pines halted in their tracks, unsure if they had to continue their pursuit regardless of the redhead their master had been talking about.

"You had  _one_ job!" Bill bellowed, scaring the beasts. "And you managed to fail to do that! We all know this is not going to be tolerated!"

Dipper and Mabel looked up just in time to see Bill begin zapping the backs of the creatures, blowing them up to smithereens one by one. Despite the terrifying showcase of power from the demon, they both noticed how one of Bill's hands was burning with blue flames, and they both instantly realized what happened. Mabel had seen Gideon do it, and Dipper had, regrettably, done it himself.

They hastily turned towards Tulip and rushed to her, grabbing hold of her arms. Tulip was simply too much stunned by everything to be able to react.

"Tulip!  _Don't do it!"_ Mabel said vehemently.

"Do not trust Bill! He's gonna trick you! Once he's done with this dimension, he'll just leave you or, worse, get rid of you!" Dipper added.

"He's a bad guy! Like a really, really bad guy! You don't want to let him help you!" Mabel continued, shaking Tulip's arm as she talked.

Tulip finally regained control of herself and shook both twins off. He then turned around and tightened her fists. She already knew what was the twins' opinion on the matter even before they told her… and it didn't help her take a decision. "I can't just say no!" she tried to justify, "He knows about the number, about what I feel! He… he may be able to show me everything else as well! I… I can't afford to let this chance slide away from me…"

"Tulip, I know what he's offering you may be tempting… trust me, he  _did_ the same with me," Dipper said. "But he doesn't mean one word of what he's saying. Shake that hand, and you'll regret it! He will use you as long as you're useful and then stab you from behind once he'll grow bored of you… he may be able to tell you everything about this train, but the price you'll pay later can't possibly be worth it!"

"That's the problem, Dipper!" Tulip retorted, whirling around to glare at the boy. "You  _don't know_ how infuriating it is to be stuck in this stupid train! You  _don't know_ how much I want to get answers! You… just… don't know!"

"Tulip," Mabel called. Her voice was softer than the one of her anxious brother, a fact that managed to get Tulip's attention. "It's true, we don't know about what you feel, but we know about  _him._ Please… you gotta believe us. I know we've not exactly been besties from the get go, but this is different! Tulip, please… you need to-"

"Enough chit-chat!" Bill's voice came to stop their talk. Dipper and Mabel felt the weight abandon themselves as they were lifted up from an unknown force. Bill approached the Pines and glared at them with a disturbing frown, examining their frightened faces. "You two have already gotten in my way too much for comfort… you don't have to worry, though. I amthe sole responsible of your existence in this dimension, so I can do everything I want to you. Just let me finish my discussion with her and I'll be all yours."

He turned around and floated towards the redhead, extending his burning hand once again. Mabel and Dipper opened their mouths to scream, to shout, to tell her to not do it… but no sound came out of their throats. Bill had somehow taken the ability to speak away from them as well. They were mute… all they could do was watch.

"Oh, alone at last. So, Glowing Number… what's it going to be, then? Do we have a deal?" Bill questioned. He contorted his eye into an expression that could be interpreted for a smile. "Think about it… you may not have another chance like this one!"

A lot of thoughts were running through Tulip's mind. She wanted to shake the floating triangle's hand. She wanted to know… she wanted to put an end to everything.

Yet, she couldn't help but think about them. Her eyes shifted towards Dipper and Mabel, who were currently hovering upside down, flailing their arms and legs in an attempt to break free. She didn't fully trust them up until an hour before… but she could tell they wanted to help her. Bill was real, and he was an enemy of them, all right, and they had to have their reasons to warn her so energetically against making a deal with the demon.

The real question was… they  _may_ have been right. But was she really willing to refuse Bill's proposal? Was she willing to simply let the opportunity to find out the real reason behind the strange mechanisms of the train? The Pines had told her that the price was too steep even for her. But what did they know about her?

Maybe, she  _was_  willing to pay that price. Dipper and Mabel were strangers, after all… who could tell if their warning had some truth in it or not? How could they be so sure that accepting the deal wouldn't have been worth it? Worth what she may have obtained thanks to Bill?

Someone bumped into her cheek.

Tulip looked to her side to see One-One staring at her. She didn't know if he had been staring at her since he had called for her name, but regardless of the case she couldn't help but feel awkward. One-One had always voiced his opinions… be they of his optimist side or the grimmer one, but now he was as quiet as an abandoned shack in the dead of the night. He simply looked at her… Glad-One and Sad-One both were looking at her. Waiting for her decision.

"Ahem! C'mon, we don't have all day! It's a simple decision, after all!" Bill pressed. Tulip turned towards him and returned his penetrating gaze.

"Thanks, One-One…" she whispered before raising her hand and making a step towards Bill.

 _No… nononono!_ Dipper thought. He tried to move and at least get Tulip's attention, but all he managed to do was make more blood flow into his head. He was already feeling a little dizzy, but he didn't stop to shake his arms in the air.  _No! You wouldn't, stupid girl! Don't you dare!_

His eyes widened in shock as he heard the sound of something being smacked. Bill retracted his arm, incredulous as well. "What the heck  _gives?!"_ he roared, massaging his hand.

Tulip had just hit the hand she was supposed to shake with a slap. "The answer is no, Bill Cipher," she announced firmly. "I've heard enough of your lies. I may have to travel for more weeks, or even months, but I won't give up the little I've managed to learn… about trust, and about friends. No… I know who to believe now."

Mabel and Dipper couldn't have been happier. Tulip looked at them and smiled as One-One waved his hand from her shoulder at them.

"How… how…" Bill spluttered, before doubling in size. "How you  _dare,_ you little brat!?"

Tulip made a step back as she started to get a little preoccupied.

Stone columns erupted all around the arena as Bill's colours darkened and the yellow turned slowly into red. "And to think I thought I could reason with you! No, you just had to fall for the usual friendship baloney! Puah!" Bill growled. "No, Glowing Number, you  _don't know_ who to believe. I may not be able to affect you physically  _myself,"_  he said, "but I can still do it sideways. You'll know soon enough how wrong it was for you to reject my deal!"

Before the girl could do anything, the earth below her collapsed only to see a stone column shoot upwards. Tulip screamed as the column carried her towards the sky, meters and meters away from the floor of the arena, while One-One retreated into the relative safety of her backpack.

"You think you can stand up to me, red?" the now infuriated Bill said as he hovered to follow the growing columns until he reached the height of the one Tulip was on. "Well then, let's  _play!"_

The arena now looked like the back of a porcupine, with stone columns in place of the spikes. Tulip barely managed to stand up on her own column before she saw one of the nearby stone platforms shoot up a little higher with a sudden movement. Then, without notice, the peak of the column exploded, sending debris and boulders shrapnel-like in every direction. "EEK!" she screamed before dropping down again, evading the slivers, but before she could even protest another column, nearer, shot up again.

She instantly knew what he had to do and jumped away just before the thing exploded. Thus, Tulip began her race from peak to peak, trying to stay away from the exploding columns. Bill simply watched her, laughing everytime she missed a foot and risked falling down, and raising his arms everytime he wanted to make another column blow up.

* * *

Dipper and Mabel had just had a moment to process what happened before the force keeping them in the air left them. They fell down and proceeded to massage their heads, trying to let the blood flow resume its usual course.

"Ohh, what in the name of…" Dipper groaned. "Gah, remind me I don't wanna to hang upside down anytime soon… ugh."

He shook his head in an attempt to free his mind and clear his thoughts out. "I guess Bill has forgotten about us… man, I didn't think she'd make him  _that_  mad. Mabel, you're okay?"

"Kinda…" Mabel answered as she moved her legs, waiting for them to recover since she was no more able to feel nor control them. Dipper forced himself to stand up and trudged over to her, offering her a hand which Mabel promptly accepted.

"Dipper… what now?" she asked as she kept a hand over her brother's shoulder to help herself staying on her own feet. Dipper scowled and looked upwards. The columns were very tall, but she could make out in the bright background the shadow of Tulip jumping from a platform to the other as well as hearing Bill's laughing… along with detonations. Of course, there was no way up visible.

"I… I don't know…" he said sincerely. "We should help her, I know that… but, how can we do it? We don't have anything that can help her, and she's too far away from us… not to mention, I don't want to think about how Bill's going to make sure we don't move if he discovers we've slipped off his mind."

"But there's got to be a way… there has to! I'm not asking for a giant robot, Dip, think about something!"

They heard something stomping behind them.

Dipper and Mabel paled before slowly turning around to face what they hoped wasn't what they thought it was. And unfortunately, their worries proved true, as the Steward was standing ten meters away from them. The same, damaged Steward that had tried to capture them two cars before.

"Oh, you  _just_ had to jinx it, didn't you?" Dipper grumbled to his sister before turning to the robot, common sense masked by his indignancy. "What do you want?! Don't you see we already have bigger problems here!?" he blurted out without thinking.

"Dipper!" even Mabel looked frightened by his outburst. But the Steward didn't change its eye colour, nor did it react in any other way. It simply looked at them, waiting in silence.

Dipper had regretted telling the robot off right away, but the lack of reaction left him perplexed… and worried.  _Why do I have a bad feeling about this?_

The Steward wasn't acting normally. It was still battered up, but up until One-One showed up it had persisted to pursue them. Why was it now so immobile all of a sudden and-?

He heard Mabel yelping, and he turned towards her in alarm just to see something that made him scream as well.

A  _second_ Steward had just taken hold of her sister. The machine towered over them and Dipper could have sworn it was bigger than the first one. Regardless, it was fully operational, and it lifted Mabel from the ground without effort.

Dipper didn't even have the time to yell at him to leave Mabel alone that he felt the grapple of the second Steward's claws on the back of his waistcoat and shirt. Before he knew it, he was right on Mabel's side, hanging in the air.  _Again._

"I'm starting to get fed up with this…" Dipper muttered before the second Steward moved them until they were right in front of its mask. The undamaged face of this robot looked as menacing as the first one used to be, if not more… yet, Dipper didn't fail to notice that the colour of its eyes remained light blue. The boy expected it to let out its deafening screech, but the ear-piercing sound never came. His tension loosened a little, replaced with puzzlement.

"…maybe this one likes us," Mabel wondered, gaining a doubtful look from her brother.

"No, Mabel, there's has to be something more to that. It doesn't make sense! What do they even want with us no-OOOWWW!" The Steward suddenly raised Dipper and Mabel and moved its tentacles towards the nearest column. The first, damaged Steward did the same, following them from behind.

Dipper was going to shout his discomfort out until he realized what was happening. The robots were moving towards Tulip and Bill… he didn't know why they were bringing them along, but that was a fact.

He just hoped that the machines were on their side.

* * *

"What's the matter, Glowing Number? A little tired, aren't we?" Bill said. He snapped his fingers and another column exploded, sending stones in every direction. Tulip tried to avoid the incoming projectiles, but although she had been trying hard her movements were slowing down. Her back hurt, and it didn't help the fact that it had previously sustained a hard slam with a tree trunk. The strain was not helping her.

A stone particle managed to land on her cheek. Tulip hissed as the flying pebble left a scratch on her skin, but she ignored it since it didn't remain stuck there and she didn't have the time to control the state of the scratch. That one, and all the numerous scratches she had been accumulating until then.

Her eyes darted right and left, looking for her next destination. Then, she realized that Bill was hovering right at her own level, only two columns away. A sudden need to try to get the demon by surprise filled her mind, and before she knew it she was already moving towards him.

"What? No more escaping?" Bill asked before she made the second jump. His eye seemed to be amused and he kept his position, studying Tulip. The girl didn't mind and simply raised a fist before throwing a punch towards the triangle, once she reached the last platform.

Her face was the epitome of bewilderment when her fist penetrated into the demon's body like it would have done to gelatine.

"Ha, it's funny that you try to fight back, red," Bill said, "too bad I don't have an actual physical body here to receive your hits… well, actually too good for you, since if I did you'd already be dead by now."

He hovered away, with Tulip fast retracting her hand and checking if it was still fully there. "Break's finished, Glowing Number!" Bill announced before snapping his fingers once again and making another platform beside Tulip increase in height, ready to blow up.

Unable to even put her discomfort into words, Tulip forced herself to keep moving. She managed to gain ten meters before the column exploded, just enough to be safe from the shockwave.

Yet, as she jumped towards another column peak with the intent to duck to evade the shrapnel, the limb that was supposed to land on the platform first suddenly gave up on the owner of the full body. Tulip yelped as she slipped and fell down, almost toppling into the abyss below and barely managing to get both arms on the platform. The pain on her back returned tenfold more painful than before, and she gritted her teeth in an attempt to distract herself and not let go.

Bill's cackle echoed around the weird dimension, the colours of the void around them alternating with his laughs. "How lovely! I admit I haven't had a good time like this one for quite a while! I gotta thank you, red!"

Tulip ignored him and lifted herself over the platform. Her sweater had sustained quite an amount of damage, so she decided to take it off to help herself a little with comfort. Once she was wearing her white t-shirt and dropped the sweater down, she picked her backpack up again since she didn't want to leave One-One, still hidden inside, to the mercy of the demon, and stood up to face Bill.

"Now, normally I'd try to make sure you suffer to no end… but you know, not physically. Taking what you love away from you and all of that… but you know what's funny? You don't have anything to begin with, to be honest!"

Tulip frowned but bore the gaze of the floating triangle as he hovered closer. "You are away from home, stuck in a moving train with no way out. Every time you get to know someone a little more you need to leave him or her behind. And the more you carry on with your travel, the more desperate you get… you're quite a sight, I'd say."

Bill pointed at her before nodding… well, as much nodding as being a triangle allowed. "Don't misunderstand me, this is actually good news for you! Since I'm not technically speaking 'here', I can't harm you directly and as far as sorrow goes you're already a pitiful spectacle, so that's two options out of the window."

" _Shut up!"_ Tulip yelled. And, of course, Bill kept talking.

"So, I was thinking that maybe I can have one of your legs crippled with a little bit of work with the little control I have of the inside of this train car. That should be able to slow you down for quite some time… maybe forever, but that's not my business! So, what do you say, red? Ready to face the consequences?"

Tulip shook her head. "I don't think I'm gonna let you enjoy fear, Bill," she said stoically.

"Too bad, I only need your screams of pain to have one heck of a time!" Bill retorted. He moved a hand and prepared to snap his fingers once again to begin his next move… before something took his attention.

"Oh, oh, oh! You don't tell me, look who we have here!" he exclaimed to the confusion of Tulip. She was expecting him to try to maim her on the spot, what could have possibly…

… _oh no._

She turned around and was greeted with the sight she hoped not to see. The Steward… no,  _two_ stewards had just emerged from the stone column maze, one of them keeping Dipper and Mabel in its grasp.

The twins were distraught, to the point that they had long since stopped thrashing about trying to break free. They simply hanged from the tentacles that were holding them in silence. For Tulip, there wasn't much to hope for at the moment…

…if not for the fact that Tulip noticed that both machines lacked the red flames over their eyes, symbol of open hostility. Even Dipper and Mabel didn't look that frightened… well, they  _were_ scared, but they were not downright panicking.

Bill didn't seem to notice the anomalies. He clapped his hands, more than satisfied with the new visitors.

"Finally, you octopus thingies are finally doing your part! I thought you were good for nothing!" he said. The Stewards didn't answer: the one holding the twins passed its captures over to the other, damaged one, then it started to move towards Tulip.

Bill's eye twitched and he let out another laugh. "Why, Glowing Number, looks like the new arrival wants to meet you in person! This is gonna be fun – and I won't even have to move a finger!"

Tulip stood on the peak of her column, immobile. She was injured, and her back was aching… she wasn't in condition to flee from a fully functional robot like that one. One error and she might slip and fall to her demise. But even if he did none, she was sure it'd take the 'beast' no more than a minute to catch her.

There was no  _escape._

The Steward, however, startled everyone but its damaged companion with its next move. The machine continued to move over the column peaks… passing  _over_ Tulip. "What the…" she stuttered, unable to understand what was going on, as the robot's body moved over her.

Even Bill couldn't help but let out a "WHAT?!". He glared at the Steward which was now approaching him. "What in the world is going on now? You're making a  _huge_ mistake, canhead. She's your problem, the Pines are your problem!"

The Steward didn't slow down. It only stopped once it was right in front of the hovering demon, and it simply looked at him with its burning eyes for a few seconds. "Hey, are you even listening? Hello? The girl who attacked you before is right behind you! The Pines, the  _stowaways_ are right behind you!"

" _Stowaways…"_ the Steward repeated.  _"Stowaway trafficker identified."_

"Yes, exact- wait, what?" Bill said, but the Steward didn't explain itself if not with a metallic screech. The flames around its eyes turned into fiery red and it raised a tentacle, ready to strike.

"Oh, you have no idea who you're messing with, canhead! You cannot harm me, but I can harm you, don't you know?" Bill advised. "Ha! You're a bit delusional for a cold calculating ro- OOW!"

The tentacle zapped forward and  _hit_ Bill right into its eye. Dipper and Mabel, still held by the first Steward and already surprised by the sight, opened their mouths in shock, unable to comprehend what was going on, as Tulip looked at the starting fight with what looked like… a smirk?

"MY EYE! You don't even know how much energy it costs to heal that out!" Bill protested, hovering away. He needed all but five seconds to recover its use and fired an icy glare to the Steward. "Congratulations, you've made me mad! You've just won a trip straight to he-OW! OW! OW!"

Instead of waiting for Bill to finish his threat, the Steward simply drew out its machine guns and started firing. Dipper was still finding it hard to believe what was happening.  _How… how can that thing fight Bill? He's a dream demon, he has no physical presence… he said it himself!_

His thoughts weren't shared by her twin, who started to cheer out of nowhere. "Go, canhead, go! Give 'im a piece of your mind! And one of mine as well!" Mabel shouted, agitating a fist. Dipper groaned, but for once he saw a glimmer of hope as well in the situation.

One-One finally climbed out of his refuge and over Tulip's shoulder. "I told you he- oh, scratch that, they were actually friends. We've just had a few difficulties in understanding each other!" Glad-One said.

"Huh, once they stop trying to kill you, apparently they are," Sad-One muttered.

Tulip didn't reply to his little friend. He simply looked over the scene as Bill tried to pitifully evade the incoming projectiles, but apparently, he was too used to not need that to do so.

"OW! That's it! I'M GONNA DESTROY YOU!" Bill bellowed. His hands opened and closed, and various columns detonated around the Steward, but the debris sent by the explosion only resulted in a few tiny, irrelevant dents on the white mask. Enraged, Bill made another move with his arms and the columns below and nearby the robot suddenly collapsed, but the machine seemed to have incredible dexterity as it jumped and leaped, nearer and nearer to Bill and without a hitch, evading the collapsing platforms.  _She's a better athlete than me, alright,_ Tulip thought, hoping with all her heart that the 'beast' would be able to achieve its target… whatever that was.

"Why don't you stop moving! You little- I said STOP!" Bill protested, but the Steward didn't comply. In a tantrum, Bill stopped the explosions and hovered near the Steward, pointing an accusing hand towards it. "Not only you can hit me! You have even the guts to fight me back! I'm losing way too much time and energy here – what else does this stupid train have in store for me, canhead? What? What?!" he roared, and with every word he moved a little towards the machine, who waited for him to come to it.

Bill had his answer when something comparable to a purple-coloured energy shield appeared right in front of his finger. Cutting its tip.

"EEEP!" Bill's cry sounded less male and more girlish for a moment as he retracted his hand. His eye morphed into a mouth and he started to blow air on the 'injured' finger, before he redirected his gaze to the Steward. His fury disappeared when he saw that the Steward was now fully enclosed by a purple-coloured shield, glyphs and symbols of obscure origin all over it.

Everyone except for the two Stewards shared the same reaction: utter befuddlement.

"This… it cannot be…" Bill stuttered as memories of his past experiences came to him. How could this canhead possibly have-

"No! …that's fine, I say," Bill suddenly said, with a weirdly calm voice. He retreated from the Steward as the shield around it slowly vanished. "I just made a big mistake by choosing this dimension, that's all. I get it, you don't want me here, and I think I don't want to be here as well anymore. So, I'll return to my business and I'll leave you to yours."

The Steward screeched, but Bill ignored him, turning away and hovering towards the Pines twins… Without giving Tulip any attention. The girl stared at him with a dubious gaze, unsure of his intentions.

The demon stopped moving only when he was right in front of the Pines. The lower Steward's eyes turned red as well, but Bill didn't attack, directing his full attention to the twins and beginning his speech  _before_ Mabel could start to brag about their victory. "Listen up! I may have made a little error here…" he yelled at Dipper and Mabel, directing a finger towards them. "But you two, don't you think you've just beaten me, Shooting Star and Pine Tree! One day we'll meet again, and when that day comes… oh, it will be a party none of you will ever forget!"

A portal materialized right above him as the colours of the background of the zone started to flicker and change wildly. "I'll see you again…  _sooner_  than you think!" he yelled again, slowly moving into the portal.

Before he shot into it, though, he turned around and shot a last, offended glare towards Tulip. The girl crossed her arms and sustained his gaze, conceding herself to smirk at him, but Bill simply emitted a 'hmph' sound.

"You're almost pitiful, Glowing Number," he said. "You do know nothing of what awaits you."

Tulip's smirk disappeared, but she didn't answer, and Bill had no intention to waste more time here. In an instant, he was gone, and the portal he disappeared into suddenly got bigger and started to suck every object around it, sky and clouds included.

Dipper and Mabel screamed as the columns started to crack and collapse, but the damaged Steward didn't let go of them, immediately beginning a fast race for the floor. Tulip, however, wasn't so lucky, and she lost her equilibrium almost instantly as the column she was standing on trembled, almost slipping down. She managed to get a grip with her hands on the edge just before she could begin an ultimate fall.

"Oh, how ironic, we've survived a mad tentacle monster and an enraged floating triangle but we're going to end our lives by falling," Sad-One grumbled. Tulip groaned and didn't answer, trying to keep her hands over the platform with all her might. Even so, her arms were starting to betray her. Her entire body was aflame, and she didn't have her forearms to help her lift herself this time: she had no energy left to climb up again... and even if she did manage to at least keep her hold, the column was going to break down any second now.

She felt something wrapping around her stomach. Something cold. She glanced down and saw what she would never have thought she'd see: it was one of the metallic limbs of the second Steward.

Just as the column cracked into two halves, she was picked up and moved away from the collapsing structure. One-One returned inside her backpack in apparent fright of heights as the second Steward started its movement, jumping from one cracking column to the other, getting away from the growing portal. The stone formations floating around the place shattered as the sky itself cracked, leaving huge black marks all around the background. The changing colours were now flickering wildly.

The Steward continued to move, unperturbed by the chaos, and it needed only twenty seconds of jumps to reach the ground, where its run shifted to a game of dodgeball with the falling rocky towers in place of the balls. Tulip kept her eyes closed, hands over her face to both keep her glasses in place and her vision covered, as she was moved in all directions by the Steward. She was pretty sure that if she tried to take a peek, she'd either faint out of fright or throw up.

The noises of destruction continued to become louder and louder. It looked all like everything was going to be annihilated… then, everything suddenly  _stopped._

The change was so sudden that Tulip instantly opened her eyes in shock. No signs of destruction, or traces of the weird stone formations set up by Bill, or any of the other features of the place. She and the Steward were now located in a car with white coloured walls, floor and ceiling, its size proportional to what they had seen before entering. The wall was interrupted only by two doors and a hole, courtesy of the two robots she guessed.

A burp was heard, but the possible annoyance was immediately silenced as the Steward holding Tulip thrust one of its tentacles to a specific point in one of the side walls. It penetrated into a hidden control panel, where it grappled a series of electrical wires and pulled them away, breaking the connections and silencing the distraction.

Eventually, Tulip managed to stop gaping and brought a hand to her forehead, trying to ease her exhaustion. The Steward slowly moved the limb holding her down, carefully letting her touch the ground with her feet first. She groaned when she felt the weight of her body press on her lower limbs, but once the Steward let her go she managed to keep her position without falling on the floor.

She looked at her unlikely saviour with an unconfident face. "Uuh… thanks, I guess?" she said.  _Ugh, that was bad._

The Steward didn't seem to hear her, the only clue about its intentions was the colour of its eyes: light blue. It raised its head, ignoring Tulip, and looked beyond her. When she checked out what it was so interested about, she suddenly remembered that she wasn't alone in this one.

Opposite of her, the first Steward stood with Dipper and Mabel still in its grasp. The twins seemed to be flustered and too much shocked to be able to react or do anything, but Tulip wasn't going to simply wait for either them or the robot to do the first move. She walked over to the machine and looked at its mangled mask sternly.

"Put them down," she ordered. "I don't know what's going on in your head, but you can't possibly be still in the same mindset as before after what you've just done."

The Steward bore her gaze without apparent reactions, looking at her and the four-legged bot that appeared over her shoulder… then, it let the Pines go.  _While_ there were still being held away from the floor, of course.

They both fell on their backs with a collective 'OUCH!'. Dipper groaned as he soothed his aching back. "Guess I deserved that…" he muttered.

Tulip kneeled in front of the both of them and began a fast scan of their state. "Hey. Are you two alright?"

"Never been better in my life," Dipper sarcastically replied, but Mabel elbowed him on the side before showing her best smile. "We're good, Tulip. Just a little tired and stuff."

One-One leaned towards the twins. "I like this kind of reunion! We should do this more often!" he said happily, before sending a look to the nearby giant robots.

Tulip fired a tell-tale glare at the bot, who made a step away from her face. "One-One… I think that's enough for a very long time."

Mabel slowly stood up… then, out of nowhere, she started to ramble. "Maybe that was enough, but it was AMAZING! We got saved by a giant machine monster! And even more, a  _second_ one went and fought Bill all by himself! Did you see his face when canhead fired his weird shield up? Priceless, ha! That was almost worth the entire travel here alone… almost."

Tulip looked at her in surprise while Dipper simply sighed. "Mabel… seriously?"

"Oh, come on, Dipper, I've been sulking for enough time! Let's celebrate for a minute at least!"

"I've never seen so much people willing to celebrate around here…" Sad-One pointed out. Mabel looked around and took note of how Dipper was scowling, Tulip was more confused than amused, and the Stewards were simply looking somewhere else. She pouted before crossing her hands. "Hmph!"

"Mabel…" Dipper started, "okay, I'm happy that Bill is gone as much as you are… sorta, and that these, uh… train monsters are no more trying to catch us. But, there's something missing here. Bill's gone… but we're still here. I mean… he said that the sole reason we're here is  _him,_  so if he's no more around..."

"Oh, cut it out, there's obviously a solution now! We just gotta find it out, but without Bill messing around I'm sure we'll sort it out in no time!"

"Mabel, please… I can't just…" Dipper said, but Tulip suddenly interjected. "She's right. Maybe you should leave it be for a moment… you deserve it, both of you. Besides, your biggest obstacle to freedom is gone… isn't it?"

Dipper thought about it a little. "I guess… wait, our biggest  _obstacle?"_  The boy's mind started to work again, linking the dots and slowly coming up with a new hypothesis… but unfortunately the events were going to anticipate his theory.

"Hey… I feel funny… like, am I losing weight or what?" Mabel wondered. Her brows furrowed with worry, but Tulip simply tilted her head, unable to understand what she meant.

"I… I feel it too!" Dipper said in alarm.

"I don't feel anything…" Tulip said. "Guys, what's going on?"

Before any of them could answer, the twins began to hover in the air. "What in the name of… Bill! Is that you!?" Dipper shouted, but no demon answered his call. He started to try and swim around the air, but he had no control around himself. Mabel didn't have much more luck.

Suddenly, a second portal appeared out of nowhere on the sidewall behind the twins and an air current started to pull them towards the aperture, away from a startled Tulip.

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" Dipper yelled. He agitated his arms and did everything in his power to slow himself down with no effect. Mabel caught his feet at the last moment with a hand of hers before she could be sucked into the portal, but that only ended up pulling his brother closer to the fracture in the interdimensional continuum along with her.

When they realized they had no way out, they screamed the name of the one person that they thought could help them out. "TULIP!"

Tulip didn't think about it twice. She made a step forward to begin running towards them, but before she could move anymore something caught hold of her right leg. She fell down, her chin impacting with the hard floor, but she had no time to lament about it. She turned her head, trying to understand what had just blocked her lower limb.

The second Steward was staring beyond her at the portal, ignoring her presence… if not for the tentacle that was keeping her leg trapped. "Wha… what are you doing?! let me GO!" she yelled, trying to pry the tentacle off her leg, but her efforts did nothing but make her arms start aching again. Panicking, Tulip shifted her attention back to the twins and tried to crawl towards them, using her hands to pull herself forward.

"TULIP!"

"DIPPER, MABEL! HANG ON!"

She somehow managed to advance of a centimetre… then, a second tentacle moved and pushed her back down, bluntly pinning her on the floor, with One-One yelping and abandoning Tulip's backpack a moment before the claw could crush him inside the backpack.

She was completely immobilized if not for her arms and one leg. Unable to do  _anything._

"One-One…! please…" Tulip's words were full of desperation, hard to hear as Dipper and Mabel continued to scream in panic. One-One tried to reach them with a hopeless trot, but he managed to go through all but three meters before the twins were completely sucked into the portal.

Tulip just had the time to raise her hand towards them, getting a last peek of their terrified faces, before the portal ultimately vanished into nothingness.

Dipper Pines and Mabel Pines had left no trace of their presence inside the Infinity Train.

One-One stopped his trot and looked down in shame. The only sound that could be heard were the burning of the flames of the two Stewards' eyes and the soft, yet caustic sobbing of his companion.

"Get… off… me…" Tulip managed to wheeze out. Finally, the Steward lifted its claws, and Tulip scrambled away from it, sitting up without standing. Her eyes were already wet, but she wasn't done talking.

"Why… why did you stop me?  _Why?!"_ she shouted, glaring at what she thought was the responsible of the disappearance of the Pines.

The Steward wasn't even looking at her. It exchanged a glance with the first Steward, then they both began to move towards the hole on the car's sidewall.

"You… you  _can't leave me like that!_ I  _deserve_ to know! Why did you do all of this?! WHY?"

The Stewards were deaf to her words. The first one disappeared outside, and for a moment Tulip hoped that at least the second one, the new Steward that had saved her life, would at least halt its movement for a second. Turn towards her. Tell her something… tell her why they had not let her help Dipper and Mabel after their uncalled but welcomed aid in the confrontation with Bill… or even give her just a meaningful nod. Something she could at least ponder about…  _anything._

The last Steward left the place without even a hint at slowing down. And now… she was alone.

She hugged her legs and remained immobile as new sobs came up her throat. She didn't even have the chance to say goodbye…

She didn't want to leave them like that!

…gah, she missed them already. Huh, considering what a great travelling companion she had been, that was almost comical: messing with them all the time and not trusting them up until the very last moment… and eventually not even able to help them when they needed her!

She frowned when she started to feel the tears flow down her cheeks, for the second time in an hour. She took off her glasses and threw them away without care, then she hid her face behind her knees.

"Miss Tulip?"

"Leave me alone, One-One… I… I need to stay alone…"

"I hope you're not blaming yourself for what happened. That'd be a little too much, even in my opinion," Sad-One insisted.

"Are you deaf or  _what?!"_ Tulip hissed, looking up to glare at the approaching bot with hostility. "I don't need your  _help_ One-One! Scram!"

"Miss Tulip, please! Hear us out," Glad-One continued, not hesitating for a second. "The twins may not be in actual danger. Dipper said it himself – the bad triangle guy was the reason they were here, and he's left the train. So, I reckon they're not only safe and sound… they may already back to their home!"

"It's surely a much pleasant scenario than thinking of them lost between dimensions… and more probable as well. I'm positive portals like that one do not pop in and out just by chance," Sad-One said.

Tulip bit her lip before groaning and hiding her face again. "But… even if you're right… I-I didn't want to… ugh. I just… it's not fair. Even a goodbye would have worked… Why didn't the stupid beasts let me… argh! More questions!"

She felt a little mechanical limb touch her side. One-One was already here, and she couldn't simply ignore him. She turned her head a little, uncovering one eye.

"More questions that you didn't have before. That's still progress," Sad-One specified.

"Not to mention that we know a little more about our giant friends now!" Glad-One added.

Tulip hummed and made a long breath... trying to calm herself down. Then, it came to her.  _The number! I completely forgot about it!_

She didn't have the force to stop herself from looking at her palm at once. Then she saw it.

' _47'._

Tulip had grown so much accustomed to see the number unchanged that the view took her aback. She thought over what had happened and what could've triggered the second number change… then, she noticed that One-One was looking at the green two digits on her hand as well.

"That's  _definitely_ progress…" Sad-One muttered. "I hope for your mental stability that you won't deny that."

Tulip looked at the little bot with all kinds of bad intentions, but then she sighed. "Yeah… I guess I can't."

She also guessed that there was a smile forming over her lips, but maybe that was just a thought.

"I'm sure that Miss Mabel and her brother Dipper would've been very happy to hear the news!" Glad-One tweeted happily.

Tulip looked at One-One for a second before picking it up and putting it on her belly. She decided to simply lie down on the floor and for an entire minute she kept her position, without moving or saying anything. One-One didn't try to free himself from her grasp, respecting her will patiently. The only noise hearable was the sound of the moving train below them.

In the end, she hummed her approval. "Yep. They sure would have."

* * *

"AAAAAAH!"

Dipper and Mabel jumped on their beds, hastily looking around with fast breath rates. It was dead in the night, but the moon casted a dim light through the window which let them look around a little in the room.

"We… we're back in the shack?" Mabel asked doubtfully. She sat down on the edge of her supposed bed. "The nightstand is still there… my brother is here, and so is his bed… my bed has the bite marks of the cute goat…" she listed out-loud, before leaning down and starting to rummage through the things that were accumulated under her own bed until she felt grip on the handle of a familiar object.

" _Grappling hook!_  Woo-hoo! We're really back!" she squealed, springing towards Dipper who was still stunned by their sudden awakening. She grasped him and pulled him on the floor before trying to turn him around herself to throw him who knows where. "Mab-Mabel! Mabel, stop it!"

Mabel let him go, which flung poor Dipper back into his bed. He ended up flipping over it and impacting with the wall with a loud 'THUD!'.

"What in the world is going on there!? It's three in the night, for crying out loud! Cut it off you two or I'll put you on bath-cleaning duty for a full week!" came the vexed reprimand of Grunkle Stan from beyond the walls, followed by more grumbles which the kids weren't able to comprehend.

That was the ultimate confirmation about their current location. "Ow… all right, we're back indeed," Dipper groaned.

Mabel hurried towards her brother. "Sorry, Dip… I was a little overexcited," she whispered.

"Don't mention it… Oww…" he said while adjusting himself over the bed. "Now it  _does_  feel like I've just been chased by a pack of monsters and held in a runaway by a giant robot…"

He then looked at her sister, who looked at him intensely while standing right in front of him, likely waiting for him to continue. He thought a little about the recent events before sighing. "My hypothesis about us being asleep here was true, after all."

"Not only that, you were right in thinking there was something more to Bill's absence! No Bill, no train, and here we are!" Mabel said excitedly. "Guess that wasn't something Tulip expected, huh?"

Then, it suddenly hit both her and Dipper that Tulip was no more with them, and  _how_  the three got separated.

"Oh…" Mabel corrected herself as the smile left her face, looking away from her brother. Dipper, as much as he really wanted to simply let his mind rest for a bit, didn't want to let her go back to sleep scowling.

"Hey…" he said, placing a hand over her shoulder to make her look at him. "Don't worry. I'm sure she's all right. As far as we know those mechanical monsters helped us out, so they won't bother her. Besides, she's been there for way more time than us and she has One-One keeping her company. Without Bill around she will have no problem continuing her journey."

Mabel smiled weakly. "I know that, Dip. It's just that… I'd have wanted to tell her that I was going to miss her, that in the end she was a friend of ours and I'd have wanted to see her again, and all of that… I didn't want to leave her while screaming her name."

Dipper pondered over his reply for a few seconds before saying it. "Me too. It's not the fault of anyone, though… we were just unlucky that, I guess, interdimensional travel isn't fit for last-minute goodbyes. But, hey… maybe we'll see her again, sometime in the future."

"You think so?" Mabel looked at him. He knew those eyes were not going to be lied to so easily, but he didn't need to.

"Yep," he nodded confidently. "After all, you never know what else may happen in Gravity Falls."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry about the length (longest chapter I've ever posted since I started to write fanfiction); as I said, I thought that cutting this one would have been a crime. I hope that it didn't feel too heavy for you to read through.
> 
> There are a lot of questions this chapter may have raised: all I can say is that the story is not finished yet, and there's one last chapter left which will hopefully give the fic a proper ending. I'll write that down as soon as I can!


	7. The Dimension of Infinite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the last chapter is out. I gotta say, I loved writing this fic… it was fun to imagine how the premise would play out and how these characters would act in such a situation, and I'm happy with the final result. Hopefully you, who read the story up to this point, liked it as much as I liked writing it. I'm surely going to try writing more stuff for Gravity Falls, and as for Infinity Train I just hope I managed to keep the interest for the pilot and possible series high. With all the rumours going around the web lately we can only hope for an official announcement soon.
> 
> Thanks to whoever left a kudos or comment to show his or her support, and to everyone: thanks for reading!

"And that, Great Uncle Ford… was pretty much the end of it. We woke up in our bedroom in the shack in the early morning, confused but otherwise unscathed," Dipper concluded his tale. "Well, I was unscathed until Mabel slammed me into the wall, but other than that…"

"I understand, Dipper," Ford said. He was sitting down on a nearby chair backwards, resting his arms on the seatback, and he scratched his forehead in thought. "Dipper… I suppose you already know how much in danger you and your sister were in, don't you?"

"Uuh… I guess, it was still Bill behind it all so…" Dipper said, unsure of his words.

"True, but I'm not just talking about him," Ford said. He stood up and walked towards the table right below the window that separated the room from the chamber where the universe portal used to be. "The multiverse is not a safe place by definition, Dipper. Bill is one of the greatest dangers out there, but that doesn't mean that all the other dimensions out of his own realm and influence are devoid of threats. I've travelled for thirty years beyond the portal, and believe me… you don't want to know what inhabitants dwell there."

Dipper shuffled his feet and scratched the back of his right arm with his left hand. "I… I guess so."

Ford sighed. He may have known the kid for just a few days and, other than him and his sister, had very few interactions with younghood members, but that didn't mean he couldn't put two and two together.

"I know what you're thinking of right now, Dipper," he said, turning around to face his nephew. "Don't lie to me. You're debating whether it'd be possible to return there, don't you?"

Dipper looked down, but Ford didn't reprimand him. He walked over and kneeled right in front of him. "Look at me, Dipper."

Once the kid was actually looking at his face again, he resumed his speech. "I don't blame you for the idea. Even I managed to make a couple of friends during my time in the multiverse, some of which I still miss to this day. But I always knew I couldn't stick around them forever… they lived in another dimension, and I had mine to return to along with a job to complete: finding out what Bill's next move would have been. I always knew that I, sooner or later, would have had to leave them be. Heck… to be honest, I'd be thrilled to study this  _train of infinite myself."_

He moved his eyes away from the boy for a moment, recalling a couple of specific pieces of his story. "The way you've described how the train reacted to Bill's presence and the battle between him and the machine are intriguing, unlike anything I've ever seen, and we might even be able to learn something useful to stop the demon if we had the chance to inspect further. Yet… the risks are far too dangerous. It's simply not worth it."

Seeing that Dipper was literally trembling under his gaze, Ford decided to give him some space and moved away from him. The kid brought a hand to his cheek and looked away while still sitting on his chair, deep in thought.

After a few seconds of silence, Ford continued: "And I hope you'll understand it, too. Dipper, attempting to travel to another dimension is out of the question right now: the portal is to remain disassembled and, if possible, never to be built again for the reasons we all know… and we better not even think about the rift. Even so, if we hypothetically had a Bill-proof portal at our disposal, there would be countless dimensions out there to travel through. Without the exact coordinates, our only option may be choosing by chance and hope in the probabilities law, something that may take us  _years_ to go through before we manage to find it."

He fixed his glasses before ending his speech. "Therefore, I'm afraid you'll have to face the fact you'll probably never see that train or meet that girl again, Dipper. I'm sorry… the stakes are too high."

Dipper remained in silence for a few more seconds before timidly turning towards the man. "Great Uncle Ford… I-I understand… I know you're right- I just… I needed someone to tell me it couldn't be possible. I needed to talk to someone about it. To… to know if it was there was a little bit of hope."

Ford frowned. "Sometimes, things just don't work the way you hope for, and we all have to move on…" he hesitantly said, trying to find the right words. Realizing that he wasn't exactly saying something comforting, he decided to change the subject: "I'll thank you for telling me about this one, though. I didn't know Bill was even able to project people into other dimensions while invading their dreams… that's something I'll have to take into account in the near future."

Dipper nodded, a hint of a smile on his face. "I… I think I should go, I gotta think about it," he said before standing up and walking towards the elevator. But before he could leave, Ford called him out.

"Dipper… your sister. Does she know about you coming down here? About this discussion?"

Dipper gulped before confirming Ford's guess. "Yeah… I mean, she asked me about the entire ordeal and  _we_  decided together that I'd ask you. She doesn't want to do anything reckless, Great Uncle Ford! She… she just wondered if. Just like me."

"I trust you," Ford said sternly, "but I also trust you that you'll keep her away from danger. Remember: Bill is out there, plotting and waiting. She  _must not know_ about the interdimensional rift, just like Stanley and his employees. For the safety of everyone…  _no one_  must know."

Dipper's unsecure face left him, replaced by a confident look. "I won't let you down, Great Uncle Ford!" he exclaimed, bringing a fist to his chest in what was supposed to be an epic-ish manner to show he meant it. Ford had to struggle a little to keep a chuckle from coming out of his mouth. Oh, how much did Shermy's grandson remind him of himself…

He couldn't let his guard down, though. He had to keep the boy alert at all times, so he simply nodded before turning away towards the rest of the laboratory to ponder on his next task. Only when he heard the elevator's door close and the grinding of the cables as the thing went up he became able to focus utterly on his own work.

* * *

"Come, fellow stranger! Come and feast your eyes on the great artisan collection from your trusty pal, Great Darius! Sales only for a limited time!"

 _Last time I saw someone offering sales it didn't end well…_ Tulip thought to himself as the enormous eyes of the mantis man looked at her greedily. She shook her head and scoffed before resuming her march through the bazar. A desert-tier sun shined above them as the noises of dozens of mantis people filled the oriental-looking market, arguing with equal numbers of potential arthropod customers. It truly looked like a mantis hive cluster of sorts.

"Why not stopping by for a second, Miss Tulip?" Glad-One asked in sincere wonder. "The last merchant seemed to have a couple of nice goods. I liked that snow globe with sand in place of the snow!"

"Yes, it would've been a fitting metaphor for our current predicament…" Sad-One added.

"Oh, guys, c'mon!" Tulip grumbled, trying to keep her voice low. She didn't want to get any attention, period… since the mantis men, while more interested in their price banters than her, looked quite fearsome with their insectoid faces and the blades available on their upper arms. "We've talked about this. Stay low and move straight to the door… and no shopping!"

One-One proved insistent. "Not even a one-second break, Miss Tulip? You could use a replacement for that sweater."

Tulip ignored the fact that her sweater had indeed seen better days. "Not even a milli-second one!" she replied in annoyance. "Besides, my sweater is fine for now. I'll find something else later."

"Four," said Sad-One's monotone voice.

Tulip stopped her walk and fired a glare at the bot on her shoulder. "Four what?"

"Fourth time you've said it," he answered. His tone was neutral, but the intention was very clear.

"Ugh, all right, all right! I just don't feel like doing it, okay?!" she answered, her voice a little louder than before. A couple of mantis men passing by directed their vertical pupils towards her for a moment before shrugging and turning their attention back to their business.

She walked towards one of the various stands that surrounded the main road of the village. She wasn't actually interested in it: it was one of the few ones where the merchant wasn't present, and no one was around looking through the merchandise either. She just needed a quiet place to recollect her thoughts.

One-One didn't talk after Tulip's small outburst, but he continued to look at her with its eye sensors, waiting for her to continue. Tulip gave a glance to her companion before sighing. "I… I-I don't want to-… ugh." She directed her gaze towards the showcase, trying to concentrate on the various souvenirs and bizarre objects that were available.

"To lose a memory, maybe," Sad-One proposed.

Tulip let out an affirmative grunt. "Is it that obvious?"

"It's definitely the only good reason. You don't have to worry about that, Miss Tulip… I miss  _them,_ too," Glad-One reassured.

"No, it's not just like that, One-One… I know, it's stupid, this thing is a mess and I definitely need a new one…" she tugged at one of the sleeves of her sweater with her other hand, to be precise the one with the torn peak.

"Yet, I can't do it so lightly… I simply can't. I can name every guy we've met since we began travelling through the train, One-One. From Atticus to the weird old riddle-making guy, I remember them all… because they were all, more or less, a part of this train. But… Dipper and Mabel… they weren't. They just got here… stranded against their will. They were the only guys that somehow were in a similar situation to mine, and… oh, forget about it, this is getting me nowhere."

"A little convulsed, indeed," Sad-One confirmed, earning a glare from the redhead. But Glad-One quickly corrected, "It's understandable, though. Too bad we don't have something a little better than a ruined sweater to keep as a nice memory."

"I may be able to aid you in that, my lady," a voice interjected. Both Tulip and One-One were startled as the head of a mantis man popped out from behind the showcase.

"How long have you been hiding down there!?" Tulip exclaimed in dismay, but the mantis man simply moved its buccal apparatus into what looked like a grin. "That is irrelevant, my lady," he continued with a slightly old-sounding voice, even though all the mantises in the bazar more or less looked the same sans for a few scattered pieces of clothes. "I have solutions for more than one of your problems. For starters, you could take a look at my elegant dress collection, one where you may find a sweater of your liking."

"Wait, wait, slow down there! I'm not going anywhere, I was just, uh… looking around the place. So, thanks for the thought but…" Tulip tried to refuse the mantis' offer politely, but she failed to find the right words to do so. A glance to One-One, who was still looking at her, was all she needed to give up. "Oh, all right, whatever. Let's see what you got."

"I am sure you will be pleased, my lady," the mantis said politely, the mandibula moving back and forth. Tulip tried to ignore that and the feeling of her stomach twisting in disgust. "Please, follow me into the back of my tent."

One-One and Tulip walked behind the mantis man, moving beside the counter and following him into the entrance of the tent. The inside was filled to the brim with even weirder stuff than the public showcase, ranging from iron sabres to… embalmed mantis heads?!

Tulip had to supress a yelp. The mantis looked to her quizzically before noticing what she was looking at. "Oh, don't worry about those, my lady. They're just for display and not for sale… you never know when you'll need a  _tasty_  present to bring for your loved one, believe me. But let's not waste more of your valuable time. Here!" the mantis moved one of its upper limbs towards an old-looking wardrobe. He plucked the tip of his claw right into the door hole and with one swift jerk he opened the shutters, revealing a series of… sweaters, surprisingly. "A vast assortment, in my humble opinion. Please, suit yourself, my lady."

Tulip looked quizzically at the wardrobe who seemed to have been stolen straight from the Gran Vizier's palace. If there was even a Gran Vizier to begin with in the car. Wait, how would a mantis Vizier look li-

"I like the red one, Miss Tulip!" Glad-One commented, preventing Tulip form continuing her erratic line of thought. Realizing she was distracted, she closed her eyes for a moment and placed a hand on her forehead. "Okay, Tulip, you can do this… less thinking about Grand Viziers and more resolutions."

He walked over to the wardrobe and checked its contents. "I don't even want to know why you have sweaters of all things here…" she muttered.

"In the bazar objects move around, get exchanged and burrowed, bought and sold. There's a lot of movement, my lady," the mantis replied as he walked away, his four lower legs making tipping sounds on the ground.

"Mmh… I suppose so…" Tulip said. She wasn't a fashion maniac for sure… she just wanted something to replace her worn out sweater, so she looked straight for one with the same colour as her previous one. She picked up a green-coloured one and frowned when she saw that there was a fancy looking stamp of a trio of mantis people playing vintage guitars on its back. "That's guaranteed to catch quite some attention, no doubt…" Sad-One commented.

 _Leaving aside the fact that it's ugly,_ she thought before putting the thing along with its coat hanger back into the large wardrobe. He scanned the collection for a few seconds before the voice of the mantis merchant spoke again. "My lady, I said I would've been able to help you in more than one way for a reason."

Tulip scowled. "I'm not going to buy more of your stuff, if that's what you're thinking of," she said without turning around.

"No, no… it does not concern a piece of my products, my lady. It concerns, pardon if I sound inquisitive… Dipper and Mabel, were those their names?"

Tulip's hand froze in mid-air, a couple of centimetres away form another green sweater. She slowly whirled around to look at the mantis merchant, her face a mask of wariness… and curiosity. "Yes… they were. What do you mean?"

"Your robotic companion, my lady, is not only a nice buddy you can conversate with… but I'm sure you already know of that," the mantis explained. Tulip noticed he was carrying what looked like a steel-made, business-looking suitcase. It was even more contrasting with the oriental-ish environment than the sweater collection.

The merchant raised a claw and placed the suitcase on a table. With another jerk inside a keyhole of his blade he opened it, but its contents remained unseen by Tulip, hidden by the upper half. "You should know that your bot, better known as  _model,_ is capable of various tasks… if the proper upgrades are installed or activated, of course. And one of said upgrades might just be what you've been looking for."

Tulip slowly saw where the mantis was going for and her first reaction was to make a step back and put a hand over One-One protectively. "Hey, hey, hey! Do you think I'm gonna let you mess with One-One's inner circuits or what?"

"'Mess' is an undesirable choice of words, my lady. I've worked in the field before: your bot is in good hands, you have my word. Not to mention that, if my theories about your own  _model_ are true, it won't take more than a minute. It's a chance you might not want to waste…"

"Hmm… why would I not want to?" Tulip tried a different approach to test him. It was the second creature that referred to One-One as 'model', and she wanted to get more information from the merchant about it. Even so, her hand remained stuck on One-One's head, keeping him fixed on her shoulder.

The mantis chortled, or made a few gurgling sounds that could be interpreted as laughs. "Because what we're about to do is  _illegal,_  my lady," he explained, his eye pupils fixed on her. "Truly, I'm putting myself in danger by doing so… thus, I'm afraid I must tell you that the morbid curiosity I can feel you have will remain unsatisfied. So, that's why, my lady… finding someone willing to help you in the rest of the train as I am may not be that easy."

Tulip found herself seriously considering the proposal of the mantis merchant. For a few, long seconds, she just stared at the insectoid being, trying to see if there was something behind his words, some second-goal he hadn't filled her in, but the mantis simply waited for her response, his expression undecipherable.

She felt a robotic toe tip at her hand and, answering his call, Tulip grabbed hold of One-One with both her hands and moved him in front of her. "Let's do it, Miss Tulip!" Glad-One immediately gave his support to the idea, flailing his little robot hands in excitement.

"One-One… I don't think it might be wise to-…"

"It's what you want, though," Sad-One continued, unperturbed by Tulip's frown. "The eventual danger does not concern me – the cars will offer plenty of times to die in the future in any case."

"Is that supposed to reassure me?" Tulip asked.

"Maybe. I love dangerous adventures anyway!"

Tulip groaned before deciding to end the discussion that she knew wasn't going nowhere. She might as well trust the one friend that she didn't have had to leave behind or that voluntarily or not had left her.

"All right, we'll take it… whatever you're planning to do. But no funny business!"

"A wise choice, my lady," the mantis replied. He gestured to the table with one of its claws and Tulip slowly came over to put One-One over it. "And please, you have nothing to worry about. Besides, this service is included with the purchase of the sweater."

 _Like that'll make me be less suspicious…_ she thought as she eyed suspiciously the giant arthropod. One-One trotted towards the opened suitcase while the mantis scanned the robot with its huge eyes. "Mmh, as I thought. We're lucky, my lady, this is a model I'm accustomed to and it won't need a full-blown upgrade."

He placed a claw over One-One's head and slowly rotated the bot until it's front was facing Tulip. The girl continued to keep an eye on him as the mantis raised one of its lower limbs to take hold of something inside the suitcase. He continued to make sure Tulip couldn't see  _anything,_ something that annoyed her, but the little bot didn't protest, waiting for the mantis to finish his job.  _I hope I'm not gonna regret this, One-One…_

The mantis fiddled a little on One-One's back. "Let's see… ha, easy as grabbing a fly in the morning. We'll just add a few connections here…" another limb moved to grab another hidden object, "…and place this there… then make sure everything is in place… and it is. The block's gone, and we're done!"

The entire process had taken less than thirty seconds. "What? Already?" Tulip expected the mantis to keep his word and be fast… but not  _this_ fast.

"These friendly bots are an engineering miracle, my lady. That's all you need to know. But please… take a look." The mantis used another clawless limb to gently push One-One to move towards Tulip.

"So… anything new?" Tulip questioned as she controlled the state of her little friend.

"Never felt better in my life!" Glad-One said.

"I actually feel a small itch in my back and-" a rapid 'CLICK' sound was heard, followed by a sudden light spark coming out of One-One's eyes.

"What? What was that!?" Tulip demanded, only to have One-One move his robot limbs in a shrugging gesture. "The itch is gone," Sad-One simply said.

When Tulip's stern look moved towards mantis, the arthropod didn't look preoccupied by the events unfolding. "It works," he simply affirmed.

"Could you please stop with the enigmas and start explaining what is going on here?!"

The mantis emitted another guttural chuckle. "Oh, it's nothing special. Models like 'One-One' have built-in printing abilities. They can take photos and print them on the spot with minimal energy cost."

As if on cue, Sad-One and Glad-One separated, revealing a plasticized paper sheet that was trapped between the two halves. Tulip wasn't convinced until she picked up the paper to see what was on it: a photo of her looking at the camera with a mystified face.

"You really are photogenic, Miss Tulip," Glad-One complimented with his most sincere tone, but Tulip found that the sneer that she had somehow been donning the moment the photo was taken wasn't exactly her best portrait. She turned her attention back to the mantis. "Okay, I admit I am surprised… but how's that helping us?"

"Oh, the printing capabilities of the model come first, my lady. The photo camera addendum is just an addendum of your own model's version."

Before Tulip could once again protest about the cryptic wording, Sad-One suddenly stated, "I know what he means."

The girl turned to the bot just as Glad-One and Sad-One recomposed back, then another 'CLICK' was emitted… without the light flash from before.

"You wanted a memory, my lady," the mantis said as One-One disassembled again, letting a second photo come out of his body. "Well, the model is full of memories stored inside its internal memory. It just needed a way to express them."

Tulip bit her lip, suddenly feeling a little nervous about the image that was probably depicted on the second photo. Carefully, she left the first one on the table and picked up the new photo, bringing it slowly to her eyes.

It took her a couple of seconds to accept what she was seeing.

Dipper and Mabel were in the photo. The image showed them in a collective grin – joyful for Mabel and awkward for Dipper, but both sincere in their own way – side by side, the girl with an arm around the boys' back. The background of a hallway with green curtains covering the side doors suggested that the photo went back to the moment when she and One-One had first met them. Right when it was decided that they'd travel together with them.

Tulip's befuddlement finally abandoned her as she looked at the image. "The 'Mystery Twins'…" she thought out loud, mimicking the same nickname used by Mabel to refer to herself and her brother.

Yep, she was smiling, indeed. And if she really had to be honest, that single tear coming out of her eye wasn't due to a pesky gnat.

"I… I'm at loss of words…" she said, giving a flustered look to the mantis man. "Thank you."

"Pleased to help you, my lady. When you're done with the sweaters, meet me outside," he said before turning around to exit the tent, leaving the two travellers alone: something that Tulip gladly accepted. She really needed some alone time with her own thoughts and a well-known face (as much as One-One had a face) to talk with at the moment.

She looked at the bot before letting out a little chuckle. "Thanks, guys."

"Pleased to help you as well, my lady," Sad-One muttered, reusing the mantis' words.

"Happy to see you liked it!" Glad-One tweeted.

"Yeah… I think I'm not going to forget about them anytime soon, so… if I want to remember them, I'd rather take this than what-… what happened when they left."

She glanced at a photo again. Despite the reference she made to the twins' sudden departure, she kept her smile on.

_And thanks to you, too… Dipper and Mabel._

* * *

The day's Duck-tective episode had been quite boring. It was one of those filler episodes where the case in question didn't have anything to do with the main plot and there were a bit too much bad jokes for comfort… a common evil for a quite a few TV series, sure, but that wasn't helping Mabel enjoying it. If she had to be honest, she usually liked even these episodes, since Duck-tective's squawking quirks were still there for the entertainment of the audience.

But that was true only when she wasn't in wait for someone to return and tell her about their chances to see a friend she had potentially lost forever.

Thus, when she heard footsteps and the noise of a vending machine opening up, Mabel went full Olympian athlete and bolted away from the armchair and into the gift shop, tackling Dipper before he could even look right and left to see if the coast was clear. From behind the counter, Wendy Corduroy glanced for a second from her magazine at the twins before shrugging it off and resuming reading.

"Mabel, what in the-?! You know well we don't need to catch any attention! Especially Stan's!" Dipper whispered his disapproval, but all he managed to do was making Mabel forcefully drag him back into the living room. "What did he say?! C'mon, spill the beans!" she immediately interrogated him.

"I'll tell you, give me a sec!" Dipper said, pushing her sister away for a second to dust himself off. "He…" he hesitated, something that Mabel didn't take as a good sign.

Dipper sighed. "He wasn't surprised to hear about a dimension with a train of unclear length composed of cars filled with riddles and such… but he was surprised to hear we ended up there. Apparently, Great Uncle Ford didn't know that this kind of… transport, for lack of a better word, was possible."

"But we did!" Mabel concluded. She caught a lock of her hair between her fingers hands before inquiring further. "Did he… did he say something about how to get back there? Did you ask him?"

"Well… he guessed I was going to before I could. Mabel…" Dipper had to struggle to let the words out. "He… I mean, we. We can't go  _back."_

Mabel's hopes were crushed in the fraction of a second. She might have known that the chances of Dipper telling her otherwise were slim, but it had not stopped her from keeping a glimmer of hope inside her. But now, even that little spark had been extinguished. "But…"

"He said that it's a far too dangerous journey… by its own. And it's even more dangerous now, with Bill's around doing who knows what. Mabel, you need to understand, we can't risk it… not now. We've already discussed about this, actually."

"I know!" Mabel shot back. "I remember that, Dipper! It's just… it isn't fair."

She threw herself over the armchair and there she stayed, lying over it with her head resting on the left arm while staring at the ceiling with a pout. Dipper felt a little déjà-vu while seeing her sister like that, but he decided to ignore the feeling and approached her.

"I remember that, Dip," Mabel repeated, as Dipper sat down beside her, opposite of her head and over the right arm of the piece of furniture. "I remember that she's likely to be having a good time right now and that we shouldn't be worried. I remember that we can't blame anyone for what happened… but, I thought there may have been a way to at least send a message, a postcard or something. With Great Uncle Ford's tech shenanigans and all of that, I thought there could be something we could do…"

The image of the dimensional rift suddenly popped in Dipper's head, and the boy tried his best to remain calm. "Yeah… I'm sure that, if the Author thought there could be some  _safe_ way to help us out, he'd tell us right away." That wasn't a lie… not the full story, but still the truth.

Mabel lifted her head a little to look at her brother. "Do you think that maybe, just maybe… we could get something more out of him, in the future? I mean, Bill can't possibly be around forever, can he?"

Dipper resisted the urge to point out that Bill was likely to be immortal, and he also didn't tell her how Ford had specified that interdimensional travel was dangerous even without the addition of an evil dream demon to the equation. He looked at her, sustaining her questioning gaze and thinking about how to answer her, when he realized that, perhaps, Ford's words were driven by his justified fear of the near future.

Not to mention, he had been in Gravity Falls for enough time to believe that there was nothing that could  _not_ happen in the town. Be that this summer or another one.

A little smile made its way to his face. "We might have to make use of your persuasion abilities, though."

Mabel's face lighted up. "Pff!" she scoffed, "Not even Grunkle Stan can resist my charm, I'm sure his secret twin brother is no different!"

"More like he gives in when you start nagging him without rest," Dipper commented. Before he realized what was happening, Mabel literally leaped over him in a sudden attack, and the two of them wrestled for on the armchair as she tried to steal his hat.

However, the fight lasted no more than five seconds, as the absurdity of the situation finally hit them and they both burst out laughing. They recomposed themselves, sitting up on the armchair beside each other, before sighing and looking at the television set, where the credits of the Duck-tective episode were already rolling.

Before Mabel could return to her moping persona, Dipper spoke again. "One day, Mabel. I'm positive that one day... we'll see her again."

Mabel let her back rest on the inner back of the armchair, her eyes shifting towards the ceiling once again. Unable to decide whether his sister was still saddened or not, Dipper reached out and grabbed one of her hands in an attempt to let her know that he was there… and he meant every word of what he had said.

After a few seconds of generic thriller-series credits music, Dipper felt Mabel's hand squeeze his one. When he saw that the bright smile he was so used to had returned, he knew that his mission was complete.

"Yep… one day."

**THE END**


End file.
